Alexander Apóstol evokes the mutations of Venezuela

The mutations of Venezuelan society and the construction of a new political identity is one of the central themes in the work of the visual artist. Alexander Apostle (1969)one of the most prominent on the Latin American scene.

The creator, who lives in Spain, will exhibit his first individual, Posture and geometry in the era of tropical autocracywhich brings together 11 works made between 2005 and 2023, at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC), where it will be inaugurated this Saturday at noon.

The exhibition is an anthology of my work from about 20 years ago until now. I seek to link political and social events, basically Venezuelan or with Latin American projections, because they are conflicts that have peers in other Latin countries, especially in Mexico,” he comments in an interview.

And I link those events with creative facts, such as the history of art, history or architecture itself.
I link elements that were not linked in principle and, in some way, it creates a space for reflection, metaphors and succession of ideas that can be very fruitful for raising some questions,” he adds.

The photographer and video artist explains that he arrived in Mexico City a month ago, as he created two new pieces for the MUAC that were not presented at the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid, where the exhibition that will be here until May 12, 2024 and, subsequently, it will travel to the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá.

One is an interior mural, painted on a very large wall, almost 100 square meters. Through paint and some pieces of wood I expose the different emblems of the political parties that have disappeared in Venezuela; since democracy began, the 50s and 60s, until the 90s.

It is a series of superimposed organic geometries, a powerful speech is made; like a great wall of political propaganda, because in the end what you see are shapes and colors. It is very suggestive, since they are parties that no longer exist, it is like an extinct democracy,” he adds.

The second new work is a video that takes up the title of an artist book that Apóstol published 12 years ago, The wild revolutionary in prime time. “Here I link the political essay by Carlos Rangel, From noble savage to good revolutionary; the fact that the government hired intellectuals to make soap operas and bring culture and oil closer to the general public. Which seems to me to be pertinent with Mexico.”

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Also noteworthy is the series of 50 photographs of characters that represent different typologies, such as the migrant or the dictator, whose models are transgender people, evoking the mutation that the country is suffering.

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