Kommen ein Architekt und ein Maler in eine Bunkerkneipe
Cuadro22, Chur
1 October – 1 November 2021

“The joke tells itself” is a phrase to describe the obvious. Alejandro Almanza Pereda’s work constantly twists this logic. It is never about the obvious, but about the perplexing. The remaining bunkers in our time precisely document the history of human expectation of one’s own survivability or demise, whether this is self-inflicted or the fault of others. Today they are often technical paradoxes that once heroically isolated man from the outside world and are now a fad as inviting taverns. The tense relationship between the interior and exterior worlds is crucial to Almanza’s thinking. For this project, he presents a group of works that seek to create a dialogue about landscape painting, sculpture, the role of the architect, and the domestic realm. And that could manage to make the refuge a transcendental experience towards our “new” outside. If restrictions and staying at home make us more vulnerable to outside experiences, can architecture or the trompe l’oeil of painting save us from this dangerous domesticity?

Alejandro’s works attempt to question two aspects activated by the peculiar exhibition space: the illusionism in landscape painting in its function as a “window” to another place, and the domestic and intimate atmosphere dramatized in a windowless space, like the bunker. At the same time, the presence of the architect is questioned with ghostly concrete suits that play with the permanence and decay of the constructions he himself designs. Finally, the relationships between all these constants in the artist’s work are actualized through a new sculptural work, created in-situ for Cuadro22.

From the press release of Cuadro22.

Photos by Cuadro22.