«Consciencia» – Valentina Pini at CAB [CL]

During a residency at CAB – Casa-Museo Alberto Baeriswyl, in Puerto Yartou, in southern Chilean Patagonia, Valentina Pini [CH] developed research connected with that territory, paying particular attention to two elements: the huiro, a seaweed that grows on the shallow shores of the Chilean coast, and wood, abundant in the construction of the house.

The house was built by Alberto Baeriswyl, the elder son of a Swiss settler couple who arrived in the region in 1876. In that remote bay, Alberto set up a sawmill to exploit and export wood.

“Alberto’s house is located in a kind of limbo between the sea and the forest, and, if thought of in a more symbolic way, between water and fire. These two elements are crucial in Puerto Yartou; they are the key elements that made me realize how much we depend on nature,” the artist wrote in an essay about the process.

From this experience, Valentina created the video installation «Bosque Marino» (Marine Forest), which juxtaposes huiro and CAB’s classic furniture, with carvings and ornaments reminiscent of nature’s shapes. It is an immersive piece, a large-format projection surrounded by a velvet curtain, creating an intimate environment.

The work is now part of a group exhibition curated by CAB, «Consciencia» (Consciousness), in which Pamela Cepams and Nicolás Rupcich [CL], who were in the residency, also participate. The exhibition is presented in the context of «Umbral», the 15th Biennial of Media Arts of Santiago, from December 16, 2021, to January 24, 2022, at the MAC – Museum of Contemporary Art in the Chilean capital.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Valentina Pini is a visual artist. Born in Ticino, Switzerland, she currently lives and works in Zurich. Her work is based on sculpture, but she has expanded her to installations, videos, and photographs in recent years. She is especially interested in materials that have a sculptural and narrative vision. She has held multiple solo and group exhibitions in Europe and has done residencies in Africa, Brussels, Basel and the Swiss Alps, among other places. In his artistic practice, she is fascinated by the reaction and evolution of materials, for alchemy and phenomenological experience. With a mixture of humour and rigour, she plays with illusions, subjectivities, and realities in her own way.