What do monuments want, do, and stand for in our memories and public spaces? “Levitate”, questions the histories, functions and possible futures of colonial icons that still today define the identity of modern European cities. In what the artist calls ‘three anticipatory actions’, organized as grand-scale performances in the centers of Rome, Madrid, and Paris, we are confronted with three emblems of control and domination that still exert, undisturbed, their symbolic power from atop their pedestals. The Flaminian obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo, which came to Rome at the behest of Emperor Agustus in 10 B.C.; the statue of Christopher Columbus erected to commemorate the day of the ‘discovery’ of the Americas; and the statue of French military officer and colonial administrator Joseph Gallieni, are suspended, displaced from their position as vertical markers of power and tools for propaganda. Their disruption, albeit ephemeral, immediately opens up a space of public discussion.
Biography
Iván Argote is a Colombian artist and film director based in Paris. Through his sculptures, installations, films and interventions, he questions our relation with others, with power structures and belief systems. He develops strategies based on tenderness, affect and humour through which he generates critical approaches to dominant historical narratives. In his interventions on monuments, large-scale ephemeral and permanent public artworks, Iván Argote proposes new symbolic and political uses of public space.
Iván Argote studied graphic design, photography and new media at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá and holds an MFA from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-art (Ensba) in Paris. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions, including ‘TO MOVE AND BE MOVED’, KØS Museum, Copenhagen, DK (2024); ‘The Burden of the Invisible’, SCAD MOA, Savannah, GE (2024); ‘Prémonitions’, Perrotin, Paris, FR (2022); ‘Aliens en Madrid’, Albarrán Bourdais, Madrid, ES (2022); ‘Chaflierplatz’, Dortmunder Kunstverein, DE (2021); ‘A Place for Us’, Perrotin, New York, US, (2021); ‘All Here Together’, Artpace, San Antonio, TX, US, (2021); ‘Juntos Together’, ASU Museum, Phoenix, USA (2019); ‘Radical Tenderness’, MALBA, Buenos Aires (2018); ‘Somos Tiernos’, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico (2017); ‘Somos’, Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo (2017); ‘La Venganza del Amor’, Perrotin, New York (2017); Let’s write a history of hopes, Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo, BR (2014); La Estrategia, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013 ); Sin heroísmos, por favor, CA2M, Madrid, (2012) .
Works by the artist are included in the permanent collections of numerous prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum (New York, US); Centre Pompidou (Paris, France); ASU Art Museum (Phoenix, US); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (Miami, US); Colección de Arte del Banco de la República (Bogotá, Colombia); Kadist (San Francisco, US); MACBA (Barcelona, Spain).
