Boccanera Gallery, Trento, has the privilege of presenting the exhibitions of artist Daniel González (Argentina), Present Monuments.
A new chapter has begun for the Boccanera Gallery. After having established its place in the art world over the last ten years as a representative for emerging Eastern European artists, while maintaining the same radical and innovative approach, Boccanera Gallery is now turning its attention towards the West. Giorgia Lucchi Boccanera welcomes the Americas with the exhibition of two artists from the new world - Argentina and the United States - reinforcing her support for emerging and mid-career artists. With his work, Daniel González creates monuments to everyday life, looking at his origins González combines the traditional Mexican hand-woven fabric craft with the deliriant South American philosophy, pushing the daily life to the extreme of pop art. González’ project, Present Monuments, reinterprets the purpose of historical monuments in the digital era. González creates a memorial to daily life in response to our most straightforward needs, our state of mind, and our personal problems. González portrait thoughts, which, embroidered on canvas, transform the transience of an instant into a monument to memory.
The ephemerality of a moment is frozen through an act of conservation in his language, transforming these thoughts into monuments to every day, destined to last forever. The embroidered paintings and the sequins works on canvas emphasize the craftsmanship with which they were made. This practice which draws lines between repeated movements and humble everyday work is the element which creates the monument. The simple act of working is a fundamental part of the aesthetic of these mementos, and the time spent making them is an essential element of the monuments themselves. His work has an immediate power of attraction that pushes out the energy of his imaginary world—an explosion.
The subjects are turned into objects that are up for grabs. The artisanal aspect of the labour preserves the link connecting the artwork to the functionality of the materials, and to the manual practice that constitutes it. González’ Monuments are the commemoration of simple acts of common people consecrated for eternity. The consecration of gestures, of meditative practice, of work, and of the transience of the moment are elements of contemplation the artist. The works by González look into the numerous aspects of the traditional, sixteenth-century European canon, Memento Mori, reintroducing it into contemporary art between postmodernism and pop art.