El Patio
Sensory Spaces 15
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
13 October 2018 - January 2019
For Sensory Spaces at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Calero is keen to create a colourful meeting place for museum visitors. During her travels through the Andes she noticed to what extent the patio has permeated Latin American culture. It is where people come together to live and exchange ideas. You could almost forget that the Spaniards introduced this icon of colonial architecture into the ‘New World’. Calero investigates syncretism in colours and patterns, as well as in architecture. That is how she searches for an alternative to the Western perspective on the history of art. "I have always regarded my practice as a means to reaffirm a non-Western understanding of art," says Calero. "I’ve achieved that by focussing attention on folklore, craftsmanship, handicraft and decoration as sources of aesthetic style and knowledge". In El Patio she approaches syncretism in a more abstract way, with power and influence being represented in painting and architecture.
Photos by Studio Hans Wilschut
