Exhibitions
Iván Argote turns the break into a meeting exercise
'Sentir tu peso' transforms the everyday gesture of rocking into a shared experience based on trust, dialogue and cooperation.
The Colombian artist Iván Argote (Bogotá, 1983) once again places human relations and public space at the center of his artistic practice with Sentir tu peso , an installation curated by Marielsa Castro that invites the public to stop, share and rediscover the value of time in common.
The proposal starts from an everyday action like sitting in a rocking chair to turn it into a collaborative exercise. The protagonists are the Aves, a set of rocking chairs inspired by the traditional ones of the Colombian Caribbean which, at the same time, evoke the well-known Tú y Yo or Sillas de los Enamorados from the Yucatan peninsula, designed to promote closeness between those who occupy them.
Argote reinterprets this popular furniture uniting the seats by means of an S-shaped central arm, a solution that forces the participants to stand facing each other. Swinging is only possible when two or three people recognize and share their weight, delicately finding a common rhythm. Thus, an apparently individual action is transformed into an experience of mutual agreement, where each one's rest depends on the presence, listening and collaboration of the other.
The colors of the rocking chairs, inspired by different species of birds—hence the number of the series—reinforce the symbolic character of an installation that turns the furniture into a meeting device. Around the Birds, the artist creates a geometric landscape made up of platforms that, at certain times, can also be occupied by the public. These structures frame the view towards the mountains of Medellín and expand the possibilities of interaction with the work.
Beyond its formal dimension, Sentir tu peso claims leisure, pause and contemplation as increasingly necessary practices in a society marked by speed and hyperconnectivity. The installation proposes to slow down the daily rhythm and recover the pleasure of sharing quality time with others, turning care, trust and listening into the authentic engines of movement.
Faithful to an artistic trajectory that questions social dynamics and the uses of public space, Iván Argote transforms an everyday object into a relational experience that invites reflection on the importance of cooperation. In Sentir tu peso , balance does not depend on individual strength, but on the ability to negotiate, accompany and support others, remembering that even the simplest act can become a powerful metaphor for coexistence.
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