Amalia Pica

in Sparwasser HQ :
In the first room one enters, and in the same room as Tamar Guimaraes , the 16 mm film work "To everyone that waves" is projected, where as the other two art works "Island" and "Drained" are installed outside and in the basement of Sparwasser HQ.

The three works of the artist are all based on performance and her relationship to a (foreign) local placement (in Amsterdam). But a performance put on to film material does not always equal a documentation. The film "To everyone that waves" was shot during an event (Good Bye) where white handkerchiefs were distributed with no further instructions to people waving at and from a departing tall ship. The film however (doesn’t act as documentation of the event but) portraits a generic image of departure in a time set that is hard to establish at first glance.

The work "Islands" is a sequence of 35 mm slide images (projected small sized on the wall in full daylight). A person is walking in deep snow, his path drawing the image of a tropical island, the one from comic strips, the island of Robinson Cruse.

The piece "Drained" refers to the nostalgia of a certain vitality of a community. A string of colorful fiesta light bulbs is hanging outside on the facade and on the trees, and corresponding with the surrounding 'Kneipen' (pubs) it promise party atmosphere for people passing by. The string continues into the gallery room, here drained the color giving a pale but bright white light.

 

 

texts about Amalia Pica and her work

- interview to Pica and another artist on being a Latin American artist

- a review in Frieze of a show, where the film was exhibited

- the curatorial text of the same show