David Tobón - Sara Hernández
Colombian artist duo working and living between Brussels and Stuttgart.
Notes about our work.
Our work questions the perception we have about our surroundings. These questions appear through associations, displacements and modifications of objects and everyday situations. Sometimes, this can happen with the cancellation of the function that things have. For example, a double pencil that does not write, a book that cannot be opened or a magnifying glass who works as a mirror. In theses cases, the usual function has disappeared, opening the way for a narrative function that invites the spectator to create multiple stories about the same situation. The intention is to explore the rupture between the perception we have of an object image and its function.
In other cases, perception is altered by displacements of matter. For example, a sheet of paper made of graphite. Here, the material that normally constitutes the lead of the pencil becomes the support, the roles are exchanged. Graphite is also used as the material to construct objects arranged in the exhibition space, as in the case of a chair, a shipping package, or a clock. Drawing is no longer understood only as a set of forms arranged on a paper surface. For us, the drawing support is the empty space.
Displacement can also occur by the subtraction of information within one or several images. When drawings are made on paper, they accurately represent the information that the eye perceives. However, the intention is not to reproduce what we see, but to question its relationship with reality. This is why the selection of the information represented undergoes an operation of subtraction or addition, generating a tension between what is seen. This means that the viewer speculates on the possible associations between the images, thanks to the empty space that arises due to the subtraction. This intention has been explored in the series "displacements", in which some trash cans are represented without their surroundings. Subsequently the containers are displaced, and keeping their silhouette, the space behind is drawn and shown next to the image of the trash can. The image of the container and the image of the space it conceals are separated by an empty white space: what is the container and what is the content? What is the inside and what is the outside?
Currently, this strategy of subtraction is being explored with a series of photographs taken from Google Maps in which the parasol object is always present. The screenshots are subsequently stripped of their contexts, printed at 1:1 scale and arranged in the exhibition space. The series is still under construction and the implications of its displacements are just being deciphered.
Finally, with displacements, modifications and associations, we want to get closer to the idea of what things are, to decipher the strangeness that each object seems to have and to evidence the simultaneity of the multiple interpretations that reality has.
Sara Hernández (b.1993)
2019-23
Bildende Kunst an der ABK (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart).
Grundklasse Prof. Bier.
Fachklasse Prof. Koch.
David Tobón (b.1987)
2010
2020
Current
Architect (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin).
Master in Arts and Sciences of Art, Drawing section (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels).
PhD student in Arts and Sciences of Art.
Thesis Dir. Denis Laoureux (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Amélie de Beauffort (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels).
Selected solo and duo shows
2020
2019
Rendez-vous avec A. Felix Frachon Gallery. Brussels, Belgium.
Instructions to find an Alicangaro. Embassy and Consulate of Colombia. Brussels, Belgium.
Un Carré Parfait. Federal Insurance. Curator: Emmanuel Lambion. Brussels, Belgium.
Selected group shows
2023
burn out, Kunstverein Ellwangen 26.03. - 21.05. Germany
Hommages. Felix Frachon Gallery. Brussels, Belgium.
2022
The Collector´s. Kunstraum 34. Stuttgart, Germany.
Wieg Wasser brenn fall Wasser. Lange Nacht der Museen. 21 May.
Stuttgart, Germany.
Kein Leben ohne und. Fourth Art Award of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg, highlighted work. Mariaberg-Gammertingen, Germany.
2021
Current - Art and Urban Space Art festival . 09 - 19 September.
Stuttgart, Germany .
Pequeño formato. Museo el Castillo. Curator: Lucrecia Piedrahita. Medellín , Colombia.
2020
Les Petites éditions. Felix Frachon Gallery. Brussels, Belgium.
2019
Fried Patterns. Generation Brussels, Brussels Gallery Weekend. Curator: Tenzing Barshee. Brussels, Belgium.
Drawing by numbers. Brussels Drawing Week. Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Brussels, Belgium.
Art Fairs
2021-2022
Art On Paper. Brussels International Contemporary Drawing Fair at Bozar. Represented by Felix Frachon Gallery.
Luxembourg Art Week. Luxembourg. Represented by Felix Frachon Gallery.
Awards
2021
2015
Bourse Horlait - Dapsens. Brussels, Belgium.
Beca de creación. Mayor of Medellin. Medellin Colombia.