Beyond the Daily Life is an exhibition at the Center for Visual Communication in Miami / USA that brings together recent works by Teresa Diehl and the artist duo Guerra de la Paz. The show has been curated by Julian Navarro. The opening reception featured live music by the Disco Monkeys.

During Art Basel Miami Beach 2009, Center for Visual Communication in Miami and 333 Productions presented the exhibition Beyond the Daily Life. Beyond the Daily Life featured the work of visual artists Teresa Diehl and Guerra de la Paz with music performances by Disco Monkeys.

“Beyond the Daily Life examines our contemporary human experience and provokes an exploration of life beyond conventionally perceived limitations. By transposing familiar elements and cultural references, this exhibition summons a revision to commonly accepted norms and invokes an approach to life as a natural force of possibilities.” (excerpt from the press release)

Teresa Diehl, presented two immersive video installations that contrast the intensity of daily events and life with a quiet meditative environment.

Guerra de la Paz presented three monumental sculptural works using recycled apparel in an extension of the visual and three-
dimensional language they use to comment on contemporary culture.

Center for Visual Communication, Miami / USA. Private view and opening reception, November 28 / December 1, 2009.

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Artane Gallery is a rather new gallery in Istanbul / Turkey, just a few steps away from the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. Director Sevil Sert worked as a fashion and portrait photographer in the 80’s and 90’s. After some years in Cuba, she opened Artane Gallery in Istanbul in 2005.

Currently, Artane is presenting new work by the Cuban-born artists Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, the Miami-based collaborative duo Guerra de la Paz.

For their show in Istanbul, Guerra de la Paz created a series of digital decollage photographs, titled “Travelogue (Seyahatname)”, and a site-specific installation, “Hanging Garden”. (Excerpts from the press release after the jump).

In this video we meet with the owner of the gallery, Sevil Sert, and the two artists, Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, who talk about their current exhibition.

Guerra de la Paz: Travelogue (Seyahatname) / Artane, Istanbul / Turkey. September 9, 2009. The exhibition runs until October 31, 2009.

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“Travelogue is an autobiographical journey into our psyche via the photo-documentation of environments and experiences in our travel history during the last two years. We refer to our personal archive of snapshots as a raw material to create digital décollages that metaphorically serve as a testament to what may at times have felt like a contemporary nomadic existence. These photos capture the visual stimulation in a heightened sense of awareness that the unfamiliarity of our surroundings provide while influencing our memory of people, places and things.
We construct to deconstruct – turning realism into abstraction through a process of layering and superimposing imagery, allowing us to bring forth chosen images as longer lasting impressions, while others fade into background – as most memories do with the passing of time. Insinuating a visual dialogue that explores how information is recorded and stored in our minds. A montage of recollections where clear detail coexists with faded nuances.”
“Hanging Garden, 2009, is a site-specific installation where over 100 floral patterned found garments suspended from the ceiling create a three dimensional expanding garden landscape.

The materials remain the same but the composition is adaptable and is easily reconfigured to exist in a variety of environments. The installation at Artane uses architectural niches to suggest windows to the outdoors. This textile montage captures the same conceptual formula of layering actuality to create abstractions also used to create our Travelogue photographs.

The installation references the energies associated with abstract expressionist paintings of the 40’s and 50”s, where each garment becomes like a brush stroke on the gallery’s architecture. Environment becomes our canvas. The clothing used in this installation was collected within the proximity of our studio in Little Haiti, Miami from the local Pepe(Haitian rag trade) businesses. These discarded items of clothing deemed for landfill were laundered and packed into an expandable suitcase and checked in along with personal luggage to Istanbul. Once in Istanbul we visited Fatih Çarşamba Pazarı. This was our final source for an array of remnant textiles that together with the found garments are recycled and transformed into an art work. We aimed to explore our subjective emotional expression with the emphasis of creative spontaneity associated with action painting.

This piece is a site-specific installation where the materials remain the same but the composition is adaptable to the space.”

Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz of artist duo Guerra de la Paz were both born in Cuba. Alain Guerra studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Neraldo de la Paz at the Northern Illinois University, De Kalb. They met in Chicago the day that Alain was moving back to Miami. They live and work in Miami, Florida. Established in 1996, Guerra de la Paz work in a variety of media, from paintings to sculpture and installation. Currently, they focus on textile work made from unwanted clothing.

In the second part of the interview with Guerra de la Paz, we get deeper insight into their work. Guerra de la Paz talk about art and politics, their sources of inspiration, the essence of their work, the impact of Art Basel on the art scene in Miami and their new projects in the US and abroad.

This weekend their solo show “Otherworld” opens at the gallery Carol Jazzar Contemporary Art in Miami. The show runs until the 10th March, 2009. In June Guerra de la Paz have another solo exhibition called Power Ties at Daneyal Mahmood in New York (June 4 – July 31, 2009). They are also participating the upcoming group show The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture at the Saatchi Gallery (dates to be announced).

Guerra de la Paz, Studio Visit. Part 2/2. Miami, Florida / USA, November 27, 2008. For part 1, click here!

Update: Review of the solo show Otherworld at Carol Jazzar Gallery at Miami New Times.

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Related Articles:

• Guerra de la Paz / Studio Visit / part 1/2

Guerra de la Paz is the composite name which represents the creative team of Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz. Guerra de la Paz was established in 1996, when the original idea by two individual artists of just sharing a studio transformed into a collaboration that produced a series of paintings, photography, collage-decollage, sculpture and installation.

During Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 the Main Miami-Dade Public Library showed a large sculpture titled Indradhanush (Rainbow) as part of the group show Polychrome Affinities. The piece is an example of their current focus on creating works out of unwanted clothing. Their work is included in major collections. In the previous year, their free-standing sculpture Nine was sold to the Saatchi Collection.

VernissageTV visited Guerra de la Paz in their studio in Miami to talk about their work. In the first part of this interview, Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz talk about the beginnings of their collaboration, the installation Indradhanush, why they use found objects, and the way they work together.

A solo show titled Otherworld opens on January 16, 2009 at Carol Jazzar Gallery in Miami. In June 2009 Guerra de la Paz have another solo exhibition at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York (Guerra de la Paz: Power Ties).

Guerra de la Paz, Studio Visit. Part 1/2. Miami, Florida / USA, November 27, 2008.

Links: Review by Tatiana Flores in ArtNexus No. 69, Vol. 7, 2008; article by Michelle Weinberg in MAG Miami Art Guide.

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Related Articles:

• Guerra de la Paz / Studio Visit / part 2/2