[MAFD] :: MAPPING ACTIVE FIRE DATA © 2018 :: Tabacalera
“[MAFD] :: Mapping Active Fire Data”
Tabacalera, La Fragua, Subdirección General de Bellas Artes, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Madrid, España
Curated by: Begoña Torres
23/11/2018 to 27/01/2018
The relationship between art and the environment can be traced back to the origins of humanity, but it is approximately half a century ago when we can find a clear eco-aesthetic intentionality, which has been manifested through multidisciplinary approaches such as performance, sculpture, interventions in nature, aesthetics of recovery, collaborative practices, etc. All of them can be understood as a wake-up call to the urgencies of a planet of finite resources that we are letting disappear, a type of ecological art that is interdisciplinary by definition, addressing, from a post-anthropocentric perspective, the multiple aspects of the contemporary eco-social crisis in order to generate a critical reflection and, eventually, a transformative impact on the relationship between human societies and the environment.
Leaving aside these labels and even the debate on the impact that this type of practices can generate, it is more necessary than ever to search for other languages that offer, from a transversal and multidisciplinary perspective, other perspectives on the reality of the health of the ecosystem of which we are a part and other possible narratives that combat some of the foundational myths.
It is within this framework that Esther Pizarro's work is situated, which, by way of synthesis, is characterised by the transfer of scientific data into "aesthetic data", in an operation of language conversion where graphic visualisations and systems of interpretation usually abound, through which the artist formalises the complex interconnections resulting from a meticulous process of research. On this occasion, once again, her methodology of analysis has adopted a kind of form that aestheticises scientific information and translates it into a visual, almost landscape-like language, to configure an installation project that articulates data on one of the most alarming ecological problems of our time: deforestation caused by fires.
[MAFD] :: Mapping Active Fire Data combines sculptural and scientific language resulting in a new media installation that confronts the viewer with an alternative vision to the images of burning forests to which we are accustomed by the media. Understanding scientific data is never enough, and neither is the hyperrealism offered to us by the daily news, and it is now more than ever when all possible strategies for the construction of other imaginaries are necessary.
Pizarro's proposal reminds us that the world is a complex interconnected system of data, and that there are other methods of recoding it that construct alternative narratives of interpretation that are just as valid. It also reminds us that this data confirms the leading role that fires are occupying in relation to one of the concepts possibly most heard in recent years: the Anthropocene.
Blanca de la Torre
(Extract from the exhibition catalogue)
CREDITS ::
Conceptualisation: Esther Pizarro
Production: Esther Pizarro Studio
Technology: Markus Schroll
Photography: Markus Schroll
Organised by: Ministry of Culture and Sport, Subdirectorate General for the Promotion of the Fine Arts
Coordination: Mariflor Sanz
Exhibition mounting: Esther Pizarro Studio, Markus Schroll, Creamos Technology, TEMA
Funding: Project carried out thanks to the Antón Grant for sculptural creation 2017 and the support of the Subdirección General de Promoción de las Bellas Artes, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte
Winning project of the Antón Sculpture Creation Grant 2017
ASSOCIATED CATALOGUE ::
Pizarro, Esther (2018); Catálogo exposición [MAFD] :: Mapping Active Fire Data. Textos: Begoña Torres, Blanca de la Torre y Esther Pizarro. Edita: Secretaría General Técnica, Subdirección General de Atención al ciudadano, Documentación y Publicaciones, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. Extensión: 32 páginas. Idioma: español-inglés. Formato: 26 x 35 cm. Encuadernación: periódico. NIPO 030-18-007-7. DL: M-37929-2018
