La balserita de Puerto Gala (The Raft)

2014 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

Nicolás Grum

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El gran pacto de Chile (The Great Pact) and La balserita de Puerto Gala (The Raft) were part of the “Museo Futuro”, an exhibition in which the artist presented nine miniature dioramas staging fragments of Chile’s history, from its colonial invasions to the present. Through the episodes he chose to depict, the artist focused on historical narratives, the way the story is told, and the supposed irrefutability of historical facts. Museo Futuro (“Future Museum”) stands within a tradition of artists who re-read history and offer their interpretation of it through the distopic lens of the museum display. “Future Museum is the vision of a fuzzy present seen from the distance of an impossible place,” says the artist. Playing with the way the mass media have represented certain of these events that compose Chilean history, and how this has engraved collective memory, the artist sets an ambiguous light of these “official” narratives, ranging from natural disasters, the decadence of art, politics, deceit and forgetfulness. The use of an old fashioned media, miniature maquettes, evokes obsolete museology in an age where realistic images are omnipresent. It questions the format of representation, the museification of the present and the impact these events have on popular culture.

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Through a variety of media (video, drawing, sculpture and installations), Nicolás Grum explores with a touch of sarcasm and humor, the dominant discourses coming from different circles of power — politics, history, economy and art — constantly putting into question the idea of authority and “truth”.

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Colors:

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• history.n.01
• incontrovertible.s.01
• fact.n.01
• colonialism.n.01
• narrative.n.01
• fiction.n.01
• bias.n.01