If Yulele doesn’t mean anything, it can also mean anything.

The exhibition plays with the idea of pliable symbolic repertoires – words and images that are flexible enough to mean anything. Nothing is really defined when meanings are adaptable. In the Global South, we often see Spanish and Portuguese words, that emerged from the streets, and that will never be part of a dictionary; because there are no applicable definitions or translations, these words belong to the streets and there, they can live and embody new meanings. The show addresses Latin American perspectives and presents artistic positions that work through language and memory. The pliable quality of some Latin American words is seen here as possibilities to better understand and perceive diverse perspectives.

Christian Vincks announces his universe through his works, a universe that belongs to his memory. In his work, places, objects and faces are presented from his intimate repertoire and even though we have never seen them before, they still look familiar. The artist uses figurative images to address abstract ideas, feelings and narratives. In the series A Armitano, Vincks makes colour studies out of Armitano’s book covers and through these covers, he tells us a bit of his story. As an historic Venezuelan publisher, Armitano not only left a mark in Venezuelan art history, but also in the artist’s memories. Every shape and landscape in his paintings tells a different story. Yet, as well as some words, shapes and landscapes can also mean something else - they can fit in diverse contexts and embody new narratives.

With his works, Pablo Rodriguez Blanco returns to childhood, without nostalgia, but trying to recover something that was left there - our sensible knowledge. During childhood, one perceives the universe through its aesthetic character. Images and shapes can in fact, carry a more complex and deeper meaning, while promoting reflection on a sensible level. The work Untitled boundaries doesn’t suggest any explicit game, nevertheless one can think of many possible ones. Yet, what is relevant here is not what we used to do in our childhood, but the use of symbolic thought to understand the world and its dynamics. Some dynamics are visible in marble games for instance, through relations of strength, possession and proximity. Rodriguez Blanco’s works are almost metaphors of ‘grown-up’s’ thematic, such as social and political topics, but these synthesized in their purest form: as a translation of these topics for children, or how children would translate them.

If Yulele can mean anything, it could mean: universe of other places and times. Words by Ingrid Kraus.

Download the exhibition text here.