Memories are created through personal and emotional experiences. However, when the perception of these experiences changes in the course of time, the memories change as well. "In the Absence of a Place" shows mental landscapes that are constantly reconstituted through the act of forgetting and remembering.
Carlos Vergara presents his first solo exhibition in Vienna titled "In the Absence of a Place" in both floors of the gallery Plain Art. The multi-part exhibition revolves around the keywords memory, longing, and identity and includes sculptural works made of sand, collaged photographs from the Colombian Caribbean, and a perpetual sunset installation bathed in orange-red light in the gallery's basement. Press text: Carlos Vergara's show "In the Absence of a Place" focuses on the transformative potential of memories, desires, and the questioning of identity.
Through a variety of techniques ranging from photography to collage, sculpture, and installation, he questions how we adapt to an ever-changing world. Shifting between analog and digital reproduction techniques, he reworks imprints of a void, absence, and melancholy. Worn layers of Caribbean landscapes, plastic chairs sinking into the sand, and photographic overlays seem like relics of past moments, which only manifest themselves through delicate fragments in space and find form. Using various methods such as concealing, hiding, overlaying, erasing, and obliterating, Vergara attempts to bring these ideas into the space and to the viewer, inviting him or her to a moment of interpretation. Collective images of familiar everyday objects or autobiographically implied images: In the twilight of a sunrise (or sunset), the viewer finds him/herself in a diffuse tangle whose outcome remains uncertain.
Carlos Vergara (*1989 / Barranquilla, Colombia) lives and works in Vienna and Colombia. Bachelor in Graphic Design from the Universidad del Norte, Colombia. Studied Fine Arts (Photography with Prof. Gabriele Rothemann) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Winner of the Young Art Salons art award (Colombia) and finalist of the Encuentros Jaguey art award (Caribbean). Numerous exhibition participations at home and abroad: Parallel Vienna, Fotogalerie Vienna, VIII Bienal Internacional de Arte SIART Bolivia, Gallery Rudolf Leeb Vienna, OFF Bratislava, Plural Nodo Cultural Forum Colombia, Salon for Art Book Belvedere 21, Art Space Thurn en Taxi Brussels, etc...
