your age, and my age and the age of the sun

The Sun as a symbol of life, light and strength is the central element of the exhibition your age, and my age and the age of the sun that the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone has developed at Fundación Casa Wabi, located in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.

The exhibition consists of two moments: a suspended structure that contains more than 500 drawings of suns made by children between 9 and 14 years of age from the communities with which the foundation works. This space is revealed after the public enters from below, giving rise to a nucleus that concentrates the radiation of hundreds of voices from the place in which they were created.

The second piece is a wool textile dyed with natural pigments crafted in Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, which reproduces in large format one of the kids drawings that reflect the marine landscape and birds of the region. Beyond the creative genesis, the installation becomes a portrait of the context, idiosyncrasies and psycho-social conditions of the region.

Following similar projects that he has carried out in Rotterdam, Shanghai, Rome, Berkeley, Cincinnati and Moscow, Rondinone takes up the geographical location of Casa Wabi and interprets its philosophical vision creating an installation that accentuates the poetry of the union of its individual and community aspects. After two years of planning and a series of reconnaissance and research visits, the artist invited children from more than 10 primary schools in the towns of Rio Grande, San Isidro Llano Grande, Bajos de Chila and San José Manialtepec to participate.

Following this body of work of deep psychology and poetics, the pieces shown in your age, and my age and the age of the sun make an idyllic critique of the contemporary world using more dream than theory: Rondinone shows us how to find optimism in the candor of children’s drawings, to feel certain in the simple gesture of looking towards the sky and to rediscover life in the warmth of a sunbath.

Curator: Alberto Rios de la Rosa