INDOC. Documentation Centre about Art and Nature

CDAN opens The Disappearance, featuring photographs by Magdalena Correa

On 10 October, the CDAN will open an exhibition that showcases the latest creation by Chilean artist Magdalena Correa. Correa’s photographs take us on a journey to the Gobi and Atacama deserts, conveying an image of the territory as she investigates its most evident characteristics.

The exhibition, co-produced by the CDAN and Casa Asia, will later travel to Madrid, New York, São Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Beijing. The Disappearance will run until 11 January 2009.

Starting on 10 October 2008, Chilean photographer Magdalena Correa will present her latest artistic project, a co-production of Casa Asia and the CDAN. While Correa’s previous work, Austral, focused on Patagonia, in this project she turns her attention to the landscapes of the Gobi and Atacama deserts, territories she has spent the last two years exploring.

The project, which reflects the artist's interest in the toponymic figure of the ‘desert’ and its variations, began with an expedition to the Gobi Desert (in China and Mongolia) in July 2006. In December of the same year the artist travelled to the Atacama Desert in Chile.

The initial aim of the project was to make a comparative study of the two deserts by investigating their most evident characteristics. In incorporating these geographies into her work, the artist has extended on a project she undertook some years ago that involved making a record of urban architectures, which she then went on to contrast with landscapes of desolation. According to the artist, she is interested in ‘exploring and revealing the isolation, unfamiliarity and monumentality of the two deserts, and the relationship between humanity and its habitat, while also drawing attention to humankind’s ingenuous and brutal appropriation of its environment in its struggle to define its own identity.'

After its run at the CDAN, the exhibition will travel to Madrid, New York, São Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Beijing.

More information

• Webpage for the Magdalena Correa exhibition (CDAN website)

• Catalogue for the Magdalena Correa exhibition

Source: texts – CDAN; photograph from one of the videos by Magdalena Correa included in the exhibition.

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