EVERYTHING IS BORROWED

Alejandra von Hartz
Miami
2009

This first solo show of Jaime Gili at Alejandra von Hartz consisted of an installation of paintings on canvas and on paper, and a wall painting occupying the entire length of the gallery. With a text by Paco Barragán, the show launched the fruitful exchange between Gili and the city of Miami.

From Paco Barragán’s text Gesamkunstwerk Jaime Gili: “In Everything is Borrowed there is an interaction between a long gallery wall – which the artist has directly worked onto – and a group of works on paper installed on it. At the same time, there is a series of narrow and elongated paintings – pistas – reminiscent of the aesthetics of Venezuelan 1950’s maestro Alejandro Otero, which are inserted in the space, resting on the gallery’s beams. The viewer is able to stroll along the mural on the hunt for the possible narrative, or move amongst the paintings whose backs are exposed (which is for Gili a wink towards the display designed by Lina Bo Bardi for the Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo in the 1940s, which was planned to be without walls in such a way that the reverse side of the paintings could be seen). One is also reminded of Peggy Guggenheim’s exhibition Art of This Century in New York (1942). Just as back then, the explicit insertion of the spectator in the mise-en-scène is important, forcing the work of art – the object – and the spectator – the subject – to share the same universe.”

+ PDF: Full text by Paco Barragán

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