IRVING RAMÓ’S EXHIBITION IN THE NEW LOCATION OF CASA DEL BARRIO

The new cycle of paintings by Irving Ramó is characterized by a sketchy and expressive figuration, with hints of classicism and, at times, on the verge of abstraction. With this language he depicts characters in gestures that denote action, in dramatic body postures, which are in tune with that pair of Italian Baroque descriptors he chose for the title, and which he uses as a multilevel allegory: Moto & Azione.

The source of his images is diverse and can range from Rubens' The Lion Hunt to photographs of the strongest man in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The artist provokes “collisions” between these diverse imaginaries, either using artificial intelligence or his own inventiveness, thus exploring the logics of thought that operates behind the algorithm and how that is unraveled by our brain, which inhabits - in our present - the flux between the analog and the digital. In the consequent “symbolic unfolding” of the images, technology acts, in his own words, “as a translator of the chaos of the unconscious”, generating a universe open to interpretation, in which it operates in a speculative semiosis.

The set forms a large tableau, where Ramó translates his experience of displacement outside the country, a little more than two years ago, finally settling in Berlin. Through each work he weaves a story centered on conflict and extreme situations. This is emphasized by the presence of threatening pointed objects that appear in most of the works, which in turn suggest, as the artist refers, “this sacred relationship between eroticism, death and spirituality, which I see as linked to sacrifice, pain, faith, discipline, training and the primitive impulse to take the space of the other”. This cycle of paintings metaphorizes, in conclusion, something timeless and incessant: the human drama, and its immoderation, presented here as a theatricalized spectacle.

Ramó elaborates on this historical moment in which we find ourselves, and in its “almost domesticated cruelty to which we have become accustomed...”, emphasizing the central theme that occupies him: “Tragedy, the eternal struggle, or this act, round or performance in which its permutations seem to merge with time. We keep on fighting, we are fighting and we will keep on fighting; we keep on looking for spectators to entertain... the show does not end, the roles are reversed depending on who the coach is. In this process we mutate into “superhumans” or “subhumans”, and along the way, this infinite cycle leaves everything tangled in passing.”

Rodolfo Kronfle Chambers

Curator

MOTO & AZIONE. Solo exhibition by Irving Ramó.

Until June 8, 2024.

Casa del Barrio. 5, 6 La Moderna Street. Samborondón, Ecuador.