Gabriel Chaile
Esta canción ya tuvo aplausos
13 September – 2 November 2019

 

Esta canción ya tuvo aplausos is the first show of Gabriel Chaile at ChertLüdde.
The show consists of 5 sculptural works of metal and clay, and pastel drawings depicting portraits based on indigenous cultures from Northeast Argentina.

Chaile’s characteristic clay oven sculptures take on various forms, largely based on indigenous Pre-Columbian vases. Developing upon a theory Chaile calls ‘the genealogy of form’, the series created for the exhibition approaches the history of forms which have survived time and denote resistance, such as the clay oven and the common pot. Both forms are associated with food and the community space, as well as the concept of mutual consideration and beneficial action. Calling awareness to class and genealogy, Chaile invokes his own indigenous roots to challenge the reconstruction of pre-colonial identity.

The communal pots referred to in these works represent the indigenous communities and cultures that were decimated by the colonizing power of the Spanish and the white, “civilized” Argentines. Chaile formally associates the vessels with the contemporary popular pot used by Argentinian communities and the indigenous ritual. Indigenous populations today occupy several places of resistance and use these pots to solve problems of inequality in Argentina, problems which are linked to its colonial past.

Chaile draws upon this emblematic collective tool and its use for reopening social problems in his latest works, a portable clay oven attached to a bicycle and a large anthropomorphic oven sculpture named La Malinche. La Malinche is the name of an indigenous woman who was the interpreter of Hernán Cortés, the conquistador responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire. Longtime a controversial character, La Malinche carries connotations both pejorative and not. While some view her as a Judas figure for aiding the Spanish, others see her as a powerful woman figure, someone whose tribe was killed and enslaved by the Aztecs and who exacted vengeance on her people’s oppressors. Taking the form of a bird, woman and oven at once, the sculpture inspires a multiplicity of images, one of which is a creature that sings. Other works such as Sistema further suggest musical notation, through a coded message inscribed on brick that evokes an unknown song of an imagined rhythm.

All of the indigenous cultures of Argentina have elements of their past which have lost their original significance, symbols which can no longer be understood even by their descendants. Chaile aims to reconstruct and continue the lineage of these cultures through his own interpretation, propelling a journey of recomposition and invention.

 

GABRIEL CHAILE (born in San Miguel de Tucumán, 1985) lives and works in Buenos Aires. Recent residencies include Callao Monumental, Peru; SENS, Buenos Aires and URRA, Buenos Aires. He received a mention for the Klemm Prize 2015 and was nominated for the 1st Itaú Cultural Award in 2010.

Recent solo exhibitions include: “Esta canción ya tuvo aplausos”, ChertLüdde, Berlin 2019; “Genealogía de la forma”, BARRO Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires 2019; “Sonia”, El ondulatorio, Jagüe, La Rioja 2018; “Proto (a Gabriel Chaile movie)”, Ruby Gallery, Buenos Aires 2017; “Patricia, curated by Laura Hackel” Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires (MAMBA), 2017; “My name is legion because we are many”, Centro Cultural San Pablo T, Tucumán 2016; “It’s not my fault if the river comes”, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires 2015; “Leave the furrow to till the earth (delusions of grandeur II)”, National Fund of Arts, Buenos Aires 2014; “How the gold got dark! (train to know and consecrate)”, Chela, Buenos Aires 2013; “I am who I am”, Espacio Tucumán, Buenos Aires 2012. “All things were common”, Alberto Sendros Gallery, Buenos Aires 2012; “The principle of beauty is at the end of it”, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires 2011; “I never met you!”, New Energy Museum of Contemporary Art (the Ene), Buenos Aires 2011; “Daniel, performance performed in Tucumán / Buenos Aires”, arteBA, Alberto Sendros Gallery, Tucumán /

Buenos Aires 2010; “Costume for a gentleman”, curated by Josefina Carón, Ruins, Salta 2009; “The trip”, Contemporary Art Room, Tucumán National Road 2008.