Prophecies of daydreaming
07.03 - 30.03-2014
W/ Ivan Izquierdo
Combo
Cordoba, Spain
Pressrelease:
PROPHECIES OF DAYDREAMING
IVAN IZQUIERDO & ANDERS GRØNLIEN
7 – 30th March, 2014
COMBO
Calle Garcia Lovera 5
Cordoba/ Spain
Combo is happy to announce the opening of it ́s doors for the very first time in it ́s location at Calle Garcia Lovera 5 in Cordoba on the 7th of March with the inauguration of the exhibition Prophecies of daydreaming. The exhibition is the second collaborative project between Spanish and Norwegian artists Ivan Izquierdo and Anders Grønlien through La Fragua Artist Residency.
Prophecies of daydreaming
In the popular culture of ancient Greece it was a common belief that our dreams possessed the ability to see into the future. These dreams were considered messages from the gods which connect people to their divinities and the destinies of their lives. Aristoteles however, as described in his work Parva Naturalia, remained sceptical to this belief and regarded them as mere coincidences. More than 2000 years after we can see similar common beliefs in our time. Why? Is there a basic human need for superstition? If so, how can one describe this basic need in union with deductive thinking or religious conviction?
In this exhibition Ivan Izquierdo and Anders Grønlien show works which freely revolve around the topic of the Cordoban philosopher Averroes through reworking representations of him in art history, a public sculpture of him in Cordoba and freely chosen connections to ancient Greek philosophy and art. The exhibition will display all newly created paintings, sculpture, video and installation. Some of the sculpture work on display have been created using ancient techniques and with the advice and facilities of local artisans in ceramics and bronzeworking in Hinojosa del Duque and Granada.
The work on display has been created to stylistically and referentially open a poetic interpretation for the audience. The title «Prophecies of daydreaming» is an adaptation of the ancient idea of divination in dreams in an exhibition where the artists merge aspects of history, mythology, fairytales, symbolism, philosophy, poetry and cinema.
In a lecture given at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2009, entitled The True Moor of Venice (discussing the presence of Islamic influence in art and philosophy in 14th - 16 th century Renaissance Italy), Michael Barry identifies the Muslim philosopher Averroes as the middle figure of the painting known as «The 3 Philosophers» by Italian painter Georgione. Paintings produced by both Izquierdo and Grønlien are adaptations of «The 3 Philosophers».
In the city of Cordoba there is a public sculpture of Averroes signifying the importance of philosophy in this area's history through a very generic imagery of a bearded man with a turban and a book. This public sculpture of Averroes in Cordoba makes the basis for a collaborative work between the 2 artists which adapts the public representation of Averroes to place the work into a site-specific context of Cordoba, bearing in mind how philosophical thinking can flow in and out of cultural relevance and how philosophical ideas can be considered obsolete or become subject to political surpression, historical alteration or censorship. Questions arise about how these aspects relate to Averroes' writings on religious and philosophical direction in a search for human truth. The work also makes reference to psychedelic art, forms of drug induced higher consiousness and how this in turn can relate to religious thinking or deductive philosophical reasoning.
The artists also collaborate on another sculptural piece which draws inspiration from Greek sculpture, Islamic geometrical ornamentation, portraits of philosophers, religious symbols, and saints in order to circumscribe the topic of Averroes.
Through these aspects the collection of works takes on a multitude of layers which creates a referential and symbolic narrative between the different inspirational sources.
Anders Grønlien is multidisciplinary artist born in 1979 in Norway.
He recieved his mastersdegree from the academy of fine arts in Prague, Czech Republic in 2009.
Since then he has show work in a range of galleries and institutions in the Czech Republic, Norway, France and Spain.
Most recently he has had a residency at Cité des arts in Paris France. He is currently living in Cordobá, working to help construct and run the daily operations at COMBO in collaboration with La Fragua artist residency.
For more information on works by Anders Grønlien go to
www.andersgronlien.com
Ivan Izquierdo was born in La Zubia, Granada, in 1983.
He is a multidisciplinary artist with a mastersdegree in fine arts in 2006 in Granada where he is currently doing his PhD.
His works have been exhibited in several galleries and museums in Ho Chi Minh city, Paris, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Nijmegen, Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Málaga.
Since 2007, he has received differents grants for artistic creation such as FPDV in Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam), IFAA Project, Louvain la Neuve (Belgium), Centre D'art Contemporain pour Essaouira (Morocco), Inspirarte (Valencia), CRIDA, Palma de Mallorca. Currently he is preparing for a residency in Prague, at the artist residency program "Meet Factory" with the support of the Spanish Embassy from March of this year.
For more information on previous works by Ivan Izquierdo go to
www.ivanizquierdo.com