The first exhibition in the PAISAJE art program presents a series of works by Bogotá-based artist Pablo Baresch (1994) that explore narratives of Latin American landscapes transfigured into a fantastical and mysterious atmosphere. The works presented explore the pastoral narrative through an inextricable dialogue between the subject and nature, where the landscape is not a mere backdrop, but a vigorous actor that interacts with and transforms its subjects. Baresch's second solo exhibition presents, for the first time, his oil paintings, a collection that reinterprets themes of identity, nature, spirituality, and mythology.
The works reveal profound tensions inherent in the creative processes undertaken in rural settings, exploring the human impulse to dominate nature and its perception as an overwhelming and powerful force. Baresch's Pastoral Song navigates the universality of human symbols and emotions that emerge from the ambivalent relationship between fascination and awe, the desire for control and fear as dichotomous forces. This is evident in the way the composition presents works that can be symmetrical pairs, whether by size, color palette, or medium, branching out from a central sculpture: the Martyr's Palm .
Thus, the figures in Baresch's paintings and cutouts develop through hybrid forms that traverse the spectrum between tenderness and violence. Likewise, this exhibition reveals a constant process of addition and subtraction in the artist's creative process, as he shapes different scenes through the placement of the cutouts, the layers of color that solidify the scenes in his paintings, or the superimposition of leaves in his delicate sculptural works.
Therefore, his compositions, laden with symbolism and hybrid creatures, immerse the viewer in a dreamlike world where the natural and the spiritual converge in these paintings composed of a collection of icons drawn from mythology, religion, and rural life. Thus, Pastoral Song unfolds a series of snapshots that assemble a composition whose rhythm creates a complex melody from a mysterious perspective. In this way, the exhibition poses questions about what is missing, what is essential, and what is structural in the high Andean landscape through an interpretation that reflects on the material and spiritual aspects of these dynamic fictions.
