Proposal for Nohra Haime Gallery

1. Bio 2. New Sculptures 3. Text for the exhibition 4. Videos 5. Pictures of the sculptures 6. Press Articles

An audiovisual artist and lecturer in Art and Audiovisual Media at the University of Los Andes, Colombia, he works in the areas of research and interdisciplinary processes. He is especially interested in the connections between art, science, and educational processes.

His projects, inspired by sound and the forces of nature, have been exhibited in galleries and at film festivals and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA), the Bilbao Exhibition Centre, and Creative Tech Week in New York. He was also awarded the Eighth Bogotá Prize for Alternative Art Spaces. He is cofounder and curator of the RADAR Video Art Festival and the SATELLITE Festival of Sound Art, and regularly works with the Hyphen-Hub space for artistic and community creation. In 2016 he received an Honorary Mention in the CERN Collide International Prize, which is awarded as part of CERN’s art and science programme, Art at CERN, as well as being awarded the prestigious PRAC Prize by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia.

Es artista audiovisual y profesor de arte y medios audiovisuales en la Universidad de los Andes. Sus trabajos giran en torno a la investigación y los procesos interdisciplinares. En especial, se ha interesado por las conexiones entre arte, ciencia y procesos educativos.

Su obra, inspirada por el sonido y las fuerzas de la naturaleza, ha sido expuesta en galerías, festivales de cine e instituciones como el Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA), el Bilbao Exhibition Center o la Creative Tech Week de Nueva York. Además, ha sido premiado con el VII Premio a las Artes del Espacio Alternativo de Bogotá. Cortés también ha sido cofundador y curador del Festival Videoarte RADAR y del Festival de Arte Sonoro SATELITE y trabaja habitualmente en colaboración con el espacio de creación artística y comunitaria Hyphen-Hub. En 2016 recibió una mención de honor del premio otorgado por el CERN Collide International, enmarcado en el programa de arte y ciencia promovido por esta misma institución, Art at CERN, y ha sido homenajeado con el prestigioso premio PRAC del Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia.

The view from Nowhere. Variation 1 2019 Sound levitator and led lights

The view from Nowhere. Variation 2 2019 acrlyic, circuits and led lights

The view from Nowhere. Variation 1 2019 Sound levitator and led lights

The view from Nowhere. Variation 3 2019 multichannel video installation

The view from Nowhere. Variation 1 2019 Sound levitator and led lights

The View from Nowhere / La Vista desde ningún lugar Uno de los cambios más significativos de la fìsica tradicional a la física cuántica es la noción de un universo incompleto. Se creía, según la física determinista, que con la tecnología adecuada era posible conocer, entender y comprender todas las variables de nuestra realidad. Lo que nos dice la cuántica es que la realidad en si misma está incompleta, muchas de las partículas fundamentales que componen lo real funcionan de manera indeterminada, su naturaleza misma es indeterminada. No solo sómos primitivos en materia tecnológica cuando se trata de cognoscir la naturaleza y entender la realidad. Nínguna máquina o tecnología podrá nunca atraparlo todo, entenderlo todo.

Lo que tenemos son cascadas de representaciones, traducciones, espejos distorsionados que amplian y difuminan lo que estudiamos. No existe la representación sin re-representación, sin perdida e irrupción de quien estudia y observa.

One of the most significant changes from traditional physics to quantum physics is the notion of an incomplete universe. It was believed, according to deterministic physics, that with the appropiate technology it was possible to know, understand and aprehend all the variables of our reality. What quantum physics tells us is that reality itself is incomplete, many of the fundamental particles that make up the real world are indeterminate, their very nature is undetermined. We are not only primitive in technological matters when it comes to knowing nature and understanding reality. In fact, no machine or technology can ever capture everything, understand everything.

What we have are arrays of representations, translations and distorted mirrors that widen and blur what we study. There is no representation without re-representation, without loss and irruption from those who study and observe.

The view from Nowhere. Variation 3 2019 Multichannel video installation

Miramos la realidad desde el exterior y nos preguntamos cómo esta diseñada. Desde esa extraña distancia les parece a muchos como si el mundo estuviera efectivamente ahí afuera y nosotros estuvieramos sentados en una especie de sala de cine contemplando la realidad. De ahi viene entonces el concepto de mundo exterior. Pero en realidad estamos en su interior, solo que a menudo no tenemos idea de ese interior en el que estamos, de qué trata todo eso o en qué película hemos aterrizado.

Pero al distanciarnos de nuestra vida real ya hemos tomado muchas decisiones teóricas. En realidad habría que decir que por lo general no tomamos esas decisiones con plena consciencia, sino que se han tomado por nosotros de antemano, ya que las concepciones del mundo se propagan por los medios de comunicación, a través de los sistemas educativos e instituciones de todo tipo. Nos vemos constantemente bombardeados con imágenes manipuladas (retocadas de forma inadmisible con brillantes colores) del telescopio Hubble y con modelos de las últimas partículas elementales que nos deberían permitir la visión definitiva del universo.

Mientras que antes eran predicadores de todo tipo los que pregonaban sus mensajes, hoy en día se pide a los científicos y expertos que nos informen de que en el fondo solo hay particulas divinas y campos de Higgs, y de que realmente la gente no somos sino cerdos en el espacio, interesados básicamente en la cría y alimentación. Solo se llega a tales ideas si se tiene la impresion de que nuestra experimentacion de la vida, y como aparece el mundo para nosotros en cada caso, es en ultima instancia una ilusión. Cuando se adopta el punto de vista de ninguna parte, como dice el filosofo estadounidense Thomas Nagel, el mundo debe ser necesariamente lo que uno ve. Nagel ha demostrado que no podemos llegar al punto de vista de ninguna parte, que solo representa un ideal confuso con el que tratamos de ocultar cuanto sea posible nuestros intereses personaleen cuestion de la busqueda de laverdad.

Markis Gabriel, Por qué el mundo no existe.

We look at reality from the outside and wonder how it has been designed. From that strange distance it seems to many as if the world were indeed out there and We were sitting in a kind of movie theater contemplating reality. From there comes the concept of the outside world. But in reality we are inside, however we often have no idea which interior we are in, what this is all about or which movie we have landed on.

But by distancing ourselves from our real life we have already made many theoretical decisions.

Actually it should be said that we do not generally make these decisions with full awareness, but that they have been made for us beforehand, this as a result of the conceptions of the world spreading through the media, educational systems and institutions of all kind. We are constantly bombarded with manipulated images (inadmissibly retouched with bright colors) of the Hubble telescope and with models of the latest elementary particles that should allow for the definitive vision of the universe.

While before those who proclaimed their messages were preachers of all kinds, today it’s scientists and experts who are asked to inform us that deep down there are only divine particles and Higgs fields, and that really people are nothing but pigs in space, interested basically in breeding and feeding. You only get to such ideas if you have the impression that our way of experiencing life, and how the world presents itself to us in each case, is ultimately an illusion. When the point of view from nowhere is adopted , as the American philosopher Thomas Nagel says, the world must necessarily be what one sees. Nagel has shown that we cannot get to the point of view from nowhere, which only represents a confusing ideal with which we try to hide our personal interests as much as possible in terms of the search for truth.

Markis Gabriel, Why the world does not exist.

Supralunar 2019 Sound levitator and led lights

The view from Nowhere. Variation 1 2019 Sound levitator and led lights

The view from Nowhere. Variation 1 2019 Sound levitator and led lights

Natural Force 2017 Printing with graphite intervention 3/6

Nova 2017 Printing with graphite intervention

The view from Nowhere. Variation 3 (detail) 2019 Multichannel TV Installation

If the Universe, understood from the thought of Habermas, would encompass all that is knowable, then the Dark Matter - as well as most concepts and discoveries of quantum physics - would come to claim that there is also a reality in that which can not be understood and which escapes being represented.

According to Bruno Latour, "It is useless to speak of an exact representation of the functioning of the universe. The exact representation is the particular literary effect produced by the scientific manuals ".

After preparing, coloring, illuminating, reducing, reforming and correcting the data, the scientist finally projects it to a visible representation. The instruments transform our vision and define reality.

Fables About Chaos - Langton 2017 Led tubes and circuits

Fables About Chaos - Cascade 2017 Video Installation

Fables About Chaos 2017 Chords and motors

Dark Matter 2019 Code and video

Fables About Chaos - Cascade 2017 Multichannel tv installation