Ivan Argote, Excerpt, 2012. Brick, cement and spray paint.

NETTIE HORN gallery in London is hosting the exhibition “Rising Action” by Colombian and French artists Iván Argote and Pauline Bastard. It features a video programme “Home Cinema” alongside an ensemble of installation and sculptural pieces. Last week the performance “Born to Curate” took place, which was also a part of the exhibition. 

Ivan Argote & Pauline Bastard. Home cinema. 2012

The artist duo met in 2007 in Paris, where they studies at the Beaux-Arts. They graduated in 2009 and are currently working between Paris and New York. In the exhibition “Rising Action” their common vision of the city as a theatrical playground is first united.

Both Argote and Bastard use the mediums of video art and sculpture. Nettie Horn: ‘Argote acts as the director as well as actor in his video’s, dealing with social, political and art historical fields. He interrogates with humour the views and perspectives imposed by our social positions but also the status of an artwork and the notion of interactivity, which he addresses through a fictionalisation of the everyday.’

‘Bastard plays with and defies narrative processes through the phenomenon of detachment, re-appropriation or semantic displacement. Popular objects and everyday materials are omnipresent in her practice, creating a complicit game with the spectator where the veracity of their fictional and dramatic potential is questioned.’

Ivan Argote & Pauline Bastard. Sunrise. 2012

The exhibition runs from 20 January – 19 February 2012.