Wednesday 18 September 2013

Diango Hernández: The New Man and the New Woman

Diango Hernández
The New Man and the New Woman
Marlborough Contemporary

Diango Hernández's work is an explosion of energy on a black graphite canvas. His language oscillate between "personal and collective memory, blurring the line between conflicting poetic and political points of view. [...] Hernández believes that all art is autobiographical but also incorporates the collective organised structures that give shape to history." [PR]
«It is very early in the morning. The grass is covered with cold, dense dew. We haven’t even moved a hundred metres and my boots and trousers are already drenched and cold. The morning mist has turned my legs into two moving blades of grass. I try to walk as fast as I can and not to shiver, and I long for the sun to come up and make everything evaporate. An hour later, like we do every morning, we are all standing to attention like soldiers, each one of us facing an infinite furrow of exuberant tobacco plants. With our hoes in our left hands, we all shout in unison: ‘We will be like Che.’ The tobacco plants and the weeds around them remain inert; our cry does not even move one leaf. Our voices quickly dissolve. It is worse each morning to work in silence.

However, today I hear the same instruction, like a continuous, infinite echo that refuses to leave its cave. Throughout all those years I learnt how to differentiate the voices of my companions and today I manage to break the unity. I hear each voice separately and I am able to recognise each one of our faces as well as our minuscule bodies.

Who amongst us is like Che? No-one!
Who wants to be like Che? No-one!
Who would have wanted to be like Che? No-one!

Diango Hernández, 2013» [PR]
«The New Man and the New Woman at Marlborough Contemporary is Diango Hernández’s first solo exhibition in the UK. Diango Hernández (1970, Cuba. Now lives in Düsseldorf, Germany) will have solo shows at Mostyn, Llandudno and at Kunstverein Nürnberg in 2014. He has participated in many group shows in international institutions, such as MOMA in New York and the Hayward Gallery in London. His work has been presented at the 2005 Venice Biennale, the 2006 Biennales in São Paulo and Sydney and the 2010 Liverpool Biennial. A major solo exhibition was held at MART, Roveretto, in 2012.» [PR]

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