Auf der suche nach der verlorenen Einheit. (Searching for the lost Unity)
perspectives of transformation

Curated by Marcello Farabegoli and Ute Burkhardt-Bodenwinkler

The Mexican artists Guadalupe Aldrete, Sofia Cruz Rocha and Paula Flores, who live and work in Vienna, approach the general concept of transformation from the perspectives of individual experience, hermetic philosophy and knowledge through nature, respectively. The concept of duality plays an essential role. The three artists are in search of fundamental changes that would allow them to dialectically overcome duality and experience new unitywith themselves, the natural world or even the cosmos on a higher or changed level of consciousness. This extraordinary striving probably has to do with their cultural background, whereby less Latin American rather more pre-Columbian cultural elements should be decisive. These "archetypal" elements merge with western as well as Asian world views to sensual, contentwise dense and altogether very exciting works of art. Last but not least, the research-scientific attitude of the artists lends their work an essential conceptual foundation.

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Guadalupe Aldrete, formerly known as Lala Nomada, is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist based in Vienna. Trained as a plastic and visual artist, she also participated in several performance workshops with  internationally recognized artists. In 2018 she finished the master program "Art & Science" at the University of Applied Arts Wien.
Drifting from personal to political, her work focuses on exploring methods to break down and capture  moments of her past and present. Resulting from an auto - ethnographic research, her work does not only talk about her but about issues affecting bigger groups of people. Guadalupe’s artworks are created through long performative processes based on bodily experiences. They manifest as paintings, videos, photographs and installations. In many cases, specific parts of the processes are shown publicly in performances, seldomly including the audience as active participants.
Guadalupe's work has been presented internationally in several art festivals and exhibitions in the framework of individual and collaborative projects. Some examples are the inauguration of the Museum for  Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka (HR), "18. Pancevo Biennale" (RS), "Valleta 2018" (MT), "UP ON" (CN), "Mothers' Tongue" (FI), "CREATURE Live Art" (LT), "Arizona Between Nosotros" (US), "Crossover" (DE), "Dugtungan" (PH), "Blauverschiebung" (DE) and "Performing Sciences" (DE) among many others.  

Website: http://www.guadalupealdrete.com

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Sofia Cruz Rocha was born in 1989 in Mexico City. She lives and works in Vienna since 2014. Cruz Rocha  studied Fine Arts at the Acedemy of Fine Arts ENPEG Esmeralda in Mexico City, and was invited to study at  Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna by the prof. Martin Guttman at the end of her studies. In 2015 she won a  scholarship Financing Project Akbild Vienna, Austria and was awarded a FONCA scholarship for Afecciones- a  house as a walkable installation, in 2014.

Her work has been shown internationally at: 2016: Macura Museum, Belgrad; 2016: Kunstraum  Niederösterreich, Vienna; 2018: Schleifmühlgasse 12-14 Gallery, Vienna; 2014: Museo de San Ildefonso, Mexico City; 2008: Museo Nacional de Arte MUNAL, Mexico City

Her work has been published at: 2016: Kunstforum International, Ursula Maria Probst, “Politische, transdisziplinäre und diskursive Tendenzen künstlerischer Produktion in Kuba, Mittel- und Südamerika"; 2015: CirculoA, platform for Contemporary Art in Latin America, „Affecciones“

"Sofia Cruz Rocha belongs to the immemorial tradition of the link between art and spirituality, and that she  has developed from modernity new paths thanks to painters, mediums and mystics such as Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884), Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) or the artist-healer Emma Kunz (1892-1963), Theosophy disseminated by Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) or Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy (1861-1925), new  spiritual philosophies that in the twentieth century generated echoes or points of artistic contact with the  Bauhaus, the Taliesin community (1911-1959) by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and utopian organizations  such as the Anthroposophical Society started in 1902, that of Monte Verità in Switzerland founded in 1912 or since 1968, Auroville in India, examples studied by Mexican artist Santiago Borja (1970)." (Fragment of  text "Art and spirit in expansion: Sofia Cruz Rocha and Introspection as an aesthetic journey." by the art critic Eduardo Egea).
Website: www.sofiacruzrocha.com

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Through her artwork Paula Flores attempts to represent the complexity of nature, and our knowledge as well as ignorance that we have towards it. She treats themes such as immigration and the disappearance of native  cultures, flora and fauna as a result of modern industry; the spaces they occupy and how they've changed  according to its commodification. Making use of diverse artistic disciplines and a mix of organic and  industrial materials, she creates a dialogue regarding the current situation between human and nature.

Selected exhibitions 2020 Utopia de una transformacion 12-14 contemporary.2020 Fuck you Albedo, Improper Walls, Vienna, Austria. 2019 Open studios Vienna Art Week. 2019 Is this intimacy Curators agenda Krinzinger projekt. 2019 Ibiennale Honolulu,Hawaii. 2019 Biennale Sessions, Biennale di Venezia. 2019 Consciousness reframed Porto, Portugal. 2018 Being here with you Museum of Contemporary art of San Diego. 2017 Event Horizon, Joshua Treenial, California, U.S.A 2017 Boiling Process 5: Mythodologies, San Diego Art Institute. 2015 Revision Glocal/ Glocal Review El Cubo, Tijuana, Mexico. 2015 Boiling Process JAUS, Los Angeles, U.S.A. 2014 Boiling Process, TJINCHINA, Tijuana, Mexico. Art fairs/Auctions: 2020 Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego Auction. 2020 Marcello Farabegoli Projects, Parallel Vienna Austria. 2018 Salon ACME, Mexico city.

Solo exhibitions 2018 Litos Liquen CECUT Tijuana. 2017 Semilla del paraíso ICM Vienna, Austria. 2017 Flora nativa en el paisaje invadido, Deslave, Tijuana.

Residencies: 2016 Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria. 2017 Kulturdrogerie Vienna, Austria. 2017 ART  OMI, New York, U.S.A. Artist Talks: 2019 21st International Consciousness Reframed, Porto, Portugal 2018 29 Sessions in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego, U.S.A. 2017 Semilla del Paraiso, Institute of Mexican Culture with curator Koan Jeff Baysa, Vienna, Austria. 2017 Laser Talks, UC Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
Website: https://paulaflores.info

Exhibition supported by the Kaunas City Municipality, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Federal Ministry of Republic of Austria for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.