INTRO

Drawing from the legacy of minimalism, Iván Navarro (born in Chile, 1974) has developed a meticulous, politically charged body of work. Under the inargueable beauty of his Flavin-inspired light sculptures, Navarro’s uncanny forms are filled with disturbing double meanings and raise uncomfortable questions about the memory of Pinochet’s regime in Chile or the contradictions of liberal democracies.

In "I'm not from here, I'm not from There", an unidentified man pushes Navarro’s fluorescent wheelbarrow sculpture “Flashlight” through Williamsburg’s deserted city streets. The sculpture is lit by a generator filled with gas furtively syphoned from a car at the beginning of the video, denoting its parasitic relationship with its environment. As darkness descends, “Flashlight”’s neons take on a stronger glow, and slowly change from white to different colors, while the soundtrack plays the song “No Soy de Aquí, Ni soy de Allá” (I Am Not From Here, I am not from There), a touching ballad on wandering and dislocation.

Iván Navarro has exhibited widely throughout Latin America, US and Europe, including at the Whitney Museum, New York; Witte de With ,Rotterdam; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; Prague Biennale 2; 51st Venice Biennale and 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.

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