“Genome” comes from the words GENe and chromosome. It is the DNA sequence within the 23 chromosome pairs of the cell nucleus. 22 of them are autosomes and one pair of them is allosome and determines the sex, two X chromosomes for women or one X and one Y chromosome for men. We are incredible complex organism and that is the reason why he is so passionate about is. As an artist he observes the human action, he gazes at the horizons, he feels the time and he tries to live thinking that this belongs to him, that he is part of the great process that transforms life every second and that to live means to act.

 © Courtesy by Pedro Castrortega.

The project he is working on deals with this topics and he asks himself the same old question: “How can he model an idea; this idea? (genome)”. The scientific investigation offers us a whole world of discovery and new images (world-forms) that make him desire to incorporate them to him own storehouse which contains archetypes and original images of desires and forms, that once revealed, form part of the physical-visual collective, with the intention to reach the point that always leads to the same question: “Which direction should I go?”.

The form is constructed as a unit, but since we are part of the multiplicity, it is not possible to BE of just one matter; we are created from multiple cellular-universes. His figures look for each other, they try to meet themselves, sometimes it is possible, others it is not; the form is projected towards its own shadow, but is isn´t always recognizable; the encounter, the surprise, the fear or the pleasure, they all form part of my desire as an artist to awaken emotions using the provocation, using the uncertainty that makes us want to rebel or construct ourselves based on the “impossible”.

The exhibition that he is preparing for the White Box is a work that revolves around itself; it gets constructed and destroyed in order to go on. With this exposition he tries to reach a territory of restlessness; (identity) because in the identity lies the difference that seduce us. I don´t want a World of identical people; each one of us has to be desired because of the difference; this is the only way we can maintain the meaning of life. The identity should be the intimate aim, but at the same time, the universal vehicle, complement for the creation, for the construction of the Man-Future, that needs the difference for its own construction.

In this exhibition, each work has its own identity, each image tries to create itself based on its own unit and at the same time, this unit confronts its own dilemma: construct itself based on other units. A bird tries to fly but its head is human and its shadow projects an alien figure. A bull charges against its own shadow that has been converted to a bird; it doesn´t recognize it, it feels fear; however it is its own projected shadow.

We all have our personal genetics that make us unique, but at the same time we live in a shared universe, the unit and the cosmos. This is his concern and his occupation: the intimate and the metaphysical ME and every day he tries to meet with both of them.

At the outstart of its fourteenth year, White Box’s mission continues to follow the core of its original mandate which is to present broad ranging contemporary art forms by innovative artists and curators whose efforts to exhibit thought-provoking, intellectually and visually challenging art is many times overlooked. White Box has developed a multi-purpose direction allowing it to examine and present the contemporary arts from within their culturally specific contexts while providing a forum in which, aside from the general public, youth, students and seasoned arts professionals can explore, learn and engage with new ideas.

Source: Pedro Castrortega.

 Title: “Genome”.
Site: White Box.
City: New York.
Country: EE.UU.
Date: 12/05/2012-12/29/2012.