In spring 2019, the Puerto-Rico-based duo Jennifer Allora (CRF 2004) and Guillermo Calzadilla (CRF 2004) will present their first major solo project in Russia as part of the Garage Square Commission series.
By using an approach that is both poetic and scientific, Allora & Calzadilla create a boundary-transcending installation that provokes a subtle yet powerful visualization of the ecological crisis which we must all collectively confront. In Graft, tropical tree flowers, scattered under the trees on Garage square become phantoms of fallen trees from an elsewhere that haunt the place where they now are present. The uncanny way in which the blossoms appear as both plausible and out of place becomes a potent harbinger for the changing environments that we have created. At the same time the artists seem to insist, by way of this concrete example of a neocolonial landscape, on the importance of giving visual form to the ways in which a global phenomenon such as climate change is manifest specifically in a particular place, magnifying historic inequalities and injustices.
Creating an experimental body of work since 1995, Allora & Calzadilla’s practice traces the intersections of history, material culture, and politics through a wide variety of mediums, namely performance, sculpture, sound, and video. Their formally unique artistic language is deeply informed by a critical and visionary approach toward meaning-making.
May 26th, 2019 – December 1st, 2019 / Garage Square Commission, Moscow, Russia
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