AguaceroAt the exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere, April 20 – Nov 24, 2024, Arsenale, Venezia. |
| Curated by Adriano Pedrosa. |
Exhibition view , Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2024. Curated by. Adriano Pedrosa. © Daniel Otero TorresAguacero (2024), unfolds from his prior work Lluvia (2022), and is an ephemeral site-specific installation made of collected locally and recycled materials, reflects Otero Torres’s engagement with the impact of ecological crises on the lives of marginalised Colombians.
The work evokes the unusual system of vernacular stilt architecture of the Embera community along the banks of the Atrato River, designed to collect rainwater and pro- vide the inhabitants with unpolluted water. Paradoxically, although they reside in one of the most rainfall-abundant regions, the Emberas face severe challenges in obtaining clean water due to extensive pollution caused by illegal gold mining.
Through metaphorical recreation, Torres draws attention to the challenge of ensuring access to clean, drinkable water faced by communities worldwide, an issue that is intricately connected to the processes of privatising and financialising nature. As an open structure to the eyes of the world, the work reveals the journey of flowing water and its many meanings.
In the course of his travels and research in Northwestern Colombia, Torres documented his experiences through a compelling series of photographs. Rather than serving as secondary archive material to his installations, these images became the foundation for crafting a set of terracotta relief pieces. In this sculptural method, the pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material, an approach that not only highlights the essence of the work but also contribute to a striking definition of the artist practice itself.
- Amanda Carneiro
Exhibition view , Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2024. Curated by. Adriano Pedrosa. © Daniel Otero Torres
| Donde llueve y se desborda 1- 14, 2024, Ceramic. At the exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2024. Curated by. Adriano Pedrosa. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Donde llueve y se desborda 11, 2024, ceramic / 26.5 x 35.8 x 2.8 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Donde llueve y se desborda 2, 2024, ceramic / 39.5 x 28,5 x 3 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres |
Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds)
2024, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States
Curated by Lorenzo Fusi.
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight Sounds) is Daniel Otero Torres’ first exhibition at a US institution. All the artworks, including the artist’s first-ever video entitled Green Manifesto: Transformation Through Leaves (2024), were specially created for this exhibition. For his US debut, Otero Torres has decided to present his own work alongside a selection of paintings from the Currier’s collection that reference nature and ecology.
The exhibition is an ode to the unsung heroes of environmental protection, and centers on the artist’s ongoing interest in rural and peripheral communities, power structures, and collective participation. Otero Torres’ signature drawings on stainless steel and new sculptures on wood are used to create totemic monuments that commemorate the work and lives of environmental activists, mostly from Latin America, whose voices have been silenced by corporate interests and exploitative policies.
Sitting between drawing, sculpture and installation, Otero Torres’ work does not generally portray specific individuals, nor does it tell a singular narrative. Instead, it illustrates a collective – and often transnational – struggle that resounds with a plurality of voices. His images are collages that draw from diverse sources, from archives to the internet and the media, to signify the layered complexity of the power structures and systems of control operating in an increasingly interconnected world. Otero Torres’ installations address globally relevant issues from a hyper-local perspective and are concerned with telling the stories of silenced communities and foregrounding their perspectives.
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
 Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, Sonidos del Crepúsculo (Twilight sounds), curated by Lorenzo Fusi, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, United States. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Green Manifesto: Transformation Through Leaves, 2024, High- defintiion video, color sound, looped, 3:06 min. © Daniel Otero Torres |
Green Manifesto: Transformation Through Leaves is a video filmed by the artist in Colombia. The video features a striking visual of ants (Atta cephalotes) carrying pieces of green leaves, symbolizing an act of protest and expression. This imagery is inspired by the use of blank white paper as a symbol of disobedience during the Hong Kong protests. Similarly, the ants in the video carry green leaves, some of which are inscribed with writings and symbols. These markings represent a form of communication imagined by the artist, who created a unique language through which the ants express their concerns and emotions about climate and environmental issues. This work explores the concept of non-human expression and the interconnectedness of all beings in the face of ecological challenges.
A LOS HEROESAt the exhibition,
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| Curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath. |
| Exhibition view, manifesto of fragility, the 16e Lyon Biennale, 2022, curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath, Usines Fagor, Lyon. © Daniel Otero Torres |
Continuing his research into the history of social struggles, Daniel Otero Torres’ work emerges from the visual assemblage of varied historical sources. His installation opens onto a reproduction of the Monumento a Los Héroes, a freedom fighter memorial and space for resistance and expression in Bogotá , where large numbers of demonstrators gathered during protests and strikes since its inauguration in 1825 until its destruction in September 2021. An ensemble of sculptures is spread out : fountains made from reclaimed materials; precarious constructions that were previously makeshift accom- modation; and hand-drawn pictures on aluminum and mirror polished stainless steel. This piece by Daniel Otero Torres, medling private recollections and collective memory, imagines new strategies of resistance and resilience, celebrating the force of unity and the common values shared within various groups.
| Exhibition view, manifesto of fragility, the 16e Lyon Biennale, curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath, Usines Fagor, Lyon. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, manifesto of fragility, the 16e Lyon Biennale, 2022, curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath, Usines Fagor, Lyon. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, manifesto of fragility, the 16e Lyon Biennale, 2022, curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath, Usines Fagor, Lyon. © Daniel Otero Torres |
Detail, Abrazos Cósmicos III, 2022, pencil and color ink on mirror polished stainless steel, steel structure, 302 x 183 x 100 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres
| Exhibition view, manifesto of fragility, the 16e Lyon Biennale, 2022, curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath, Usines Fagor, Lyon. © Daniel Otero Torres |
| Exhibition view, manifesto of fragility, the 16e Lyon Biennale, 2022, curated by Sam Bardouil & Tll Felhath, Usines Fagor, Lyon© Daniel Otero Torres |
Based on archival images, this series of sculptures (presented in the top image) represents groups of people embracing each other for a common good. These sculptures incorporate images from various archives depicting conflicts and peace processes in several countries around the world. Each set captures a moment when individuals from opposing ideologies and backgrounds come together in an embrace.
On the left, the fragments of images originate from victims of the Guatemalan Civil War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Apartheid in South Africa, and others. Based on documentary research, Daniel Otero Torres’ totemic hand-drawn and painted sculptures occupy a space between mediums, cultures, and continents. Archival documents, media images, and photographs taken by the artist serve as the starting point from which he explores the nature of polarization, the meaning of conflict, the process of forgiveness, the power of affection, and the search for peace in different regions of the world.
SI NO BAILAS CONMIGO,
NO HAGO PARTE DE TU REVOLUCIÓN
At the exhibition,
UBUNTU, UN RÊVE LUCIDE « Six continents ou plus »
26.11.2021 – 20.02.2022, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi.
Exhibition view, UBUNTU, UN RÊVE LUCIDE « Six continents ou plus » 2022, curated by Marie- Anne Yemsi, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, UBUNTU, UN RÊVE LUCIDE « Six continents ou plus » 2022, curated by Marie- Anne Yemsi, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres 
VEINTICUATRO MANOS más cerca, 2021, pencil on mirror polished stainless steel, wood, steel, mixed media, 180 x 320 x 70 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres
Si no bailas conmigo, no bailas conmigo, 2021, pencil on mirror polished stainless steel, steel, 111 x 336 x 85 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres
Si no bailas conmigo, no hago parte de tu revolución, 2021, pencil on mirror polished stainless steel, steel, 280 x128 x 64 cm. © Aurelien Mole.
Después..., 2021, pencil on mirror polished stainless steel, ceramic, steel, 91 x 224 x 162 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres
El Brugmansias (perro sin dueño / chien sans maître / dog with no master ), 2021,
ceramic, 65 x 29,5 x 52 cm.
ceramic, 65 x 29,5 x 52 cm.
De coca en coca (perro sin dueño / chien sans maître / dog with no master ), 2021,
ceramic, 58 x 15 x 55 cm.
ceramic, 58 x 15 x 55 cm.
El Brugmansias ( perro sin dueño / chien sans maître / dog with no master ), 2021, ceramic, 65 x 29,5 x 52 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, UBUNTU, UN RÊVE LUCIDE « Six continents ou plus » 2022, curated by Marie- Anne Yemsi, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. © Aurelien Mole.
Based on documentary research, Daniel Otero Torres’s œuvre is situated in a work of passage and passer-by between media, cultures, and continents. Archive pieces and images found on the internet are the raw material which he uses to question the status of marginalized or ignored communities that have nonetheless played an essential role in contemporary history.
His installation associates sculptures, ceramic pieces and plants under a title inspired from the now famous paraphrase of the words of the anarchist and feminist writer Emma Goldman (1869-1940): “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” The totemic, “dancing” sculptures, proudly decked with accessories, bear witness to the forgotten and overshadowed women fighters in liberation struggles and movements from the 20th century to now. While these works may initially look like large hyperrealist photographs, when looked at more closely, there are meticulously hand-drawn pencil lines on the surfaces of cut-up aluminium. Via this original technique, Daniel Otero Torres succeeds in creating a disjunction of contexts: the images do not depict just one female character, but instead associate several known or unknown combatants in a visual collage, made up of archives linked to different historical period and events. Stray dogs (a reality in towns and villages in many countries) produced in ceramic symbolise the figure of the pariah, excluded but free. The presence of grass, known for their great resistance, beside the sculptures, embodies the resurgence of “the fighting spirit.”
The installation thus stands as the space for an alternative narrative that links us with other points of view about political struggles and the myths of great western stories: who is looking? Who decides? Who writes history?
Las huellas del viento
2022, mor charpentier, Paris, France.
Exhibition view, Las Huellas del Viento, 2022, mor charpentier, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Las Huellas del Viento, mor charpentier, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Las Huellas del Viento, mor charpentier, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Las Huellas del Viento, mor charpentier, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Las Huellas del Viento, mor charpentier, Paris. © Daniel Otero Torres
In Daniel Otero Torres' first solo exhibition at mor charpentier, mythologies, diverse cultural and iconographic references converge with the artist's personal memories. All of them framed by a manifestation of time that is not linear, but cyclical and multiform, in which different pasts/ presents/futures can coexist, connected to each other by links of meaning. The way in which this imaginary is constructed may remind us of the narrative forms of the magical realism; interweaving the history with the fable, real references and truthful documents with dreamlike and implausible plots. His images transport us, in effect, to a transversal plane of reality, a fertile and propitious terrain for narrative possibilities, as could have been the city of Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
On the upper floor a dialogue between three works is established. Each one of them has a plant as protagonist: corn, banana and poppy flower; all of them filled with an enormous cultural and symbolic load, particularly in Latin America. The work of Daniel Otero Torres is the result of an exercise of awareness, reassessment and perspective of history through its images and emblems. A re-reading that makes possible the construction of spaces for resistance and new allegories for revolution and liberation. The sculpture of the "bananero", which unfolds in the space and seems to sink little by little into the floor of the gallery, is based on an anonymous photograph of a United Fruit Company worker (1913), and evokes the Banana Massacre —a tragic event that ended the strike of Colombian plantation workers in 1928, the magnitude of which differs greatly between the official account and the testimonies— as well as the devastating socioeconomic, political and ecological impact of the commercial activity of this North American company. Known colloquially as "the octopus" for its tentacular expansion throughout Central America and the Caribbean, the UFCO has gone down in history as the paradigm of the exploitation of human and natural resources. military and the CIA to further its interests. In Daniel Otero Torres' sculpture, the sequence of silhouettes of the man bearing the bunch of bananas blends in with the fruit and turns itself into a hybrid gradually rooting in the earth.
A series of paintings unfolds as a backdrop. They are inspired by a childhood memory of the family farm where corn was grown, in a field constantly overflown by birds. This crop has traditionally been the backbone of American societies and constitutes a form of identity and resistance for native peoples. In recent decades, there has been a succession of initiatives sponsored by the big agribusiness lobby —led notably by Monsanto— to develop new laws that criminalize farmers for the free use of seeds. In general, they are prohibited from breeding, adapting and storing grain of "protected" varieties, and some legislation goes so far as to prohibit the non-commercial exchange of unregistered seeds, punishing farmers with fines, prison sentences and confiscation of them. The industry argues that indigenous varieties that do not conform to commercial standards would "contaminate" the "improved" versions. In the face of these measures, voices are raised to defend the social value, beneficial for local economic development and biodiversity, of these peasant or indigenous seeds.
A third work introduces the image of the poppy flower, from which opium and its derivatives are extracted, transforming the exhibition space into a field of flowers of exaggerated proportions in which the stems extend to almost reach the ceiling of the gallery. The farming of Papaver somniferum has enormous historical connotations that extend to the present day. From the Opium Wars — promoted by the British Empire to maintain its commercial hegemony over China—, the conflicts and violence linked to its illegal production and trafficking in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia or Colombia, to the enormous dependence on opiates promoted by the pharmaceutical industry in Western societies. The installation invites to wander among the suspended pieces, and to metaphorically connect the terrestrial plane of the real with that of the altered states of consciousness, floating towards infinity.
In tune with the archaeological references that are often incorporated in his projects, the lower space of the gallery is configured as a sort of hypogeum; an underground realm, like a crypt or an excavated temple, populated by a collection of terracotta vases illustrated with a fascinating iconographic program. The ceramics have been modeled after a variety of sources: Greek, Etruscan, pre-Columbian pottery, or present completely original forms, and their surfaces alternate totemic images with vernacular culture, technology or science fiction. Precisely from the literary field, author and essayist Ursula Le Guin suggests that the first cultural device was probably a recipient, and not another type of tool as we usually imagine. Daniel Otero Torres's vessels emphasize this intimate relationship between the most primordial manifestation of human technology and the sophisticated scientific developments of the present. Between both poles, bridges of symbols are built, anchored on the jubilant allegory of a universe halfway between the archaic and the post-human.
HAVE YOU SEEN A HORIZON LATELY ?
2020, MACAAL, Morocco.
Curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi.
Exhibition view, HAVE YOU SEEN A HORIZON LATELY?, 2020, curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi, MACAAL, Morocco © Omar TajmouatiTIERRADENTRO
2021, Drawing Lab Paris. France.
Curated by Anaïs Lepage.
Exhibition view, Tierradentro, 2021, curated by Anaïs Lepage, Drawing Lab Paris, France. © Olivier Lechat
Exhibition view, Tierradentro, curated by Anaïs Lepage, Drawing Lab Paris, France © Daniel Otero Torres
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Exhibition view, Tierradentro, curated by Anaïs Lepage, Drawing Lab Paris, France © Daniel Otero Torres
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Exhibition view, Tierradentro, curated by Anaïs Lepage Drawing Lab Paris, France. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Tierradentro, curated by Anaïs Lepage, Drawing Lab Paris, France © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Tierradentro, curated by Anaïs Lepage Drawing Lab Paris, France. © Daniel Otero Torres
El triple uno, 2020, drawing on stainless steel, metal, mixed media, variable dimensions. © Daniel Otero Torres
Hamaca, 2021, pencil drawing on paper, 122 x 162 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres The tittle Tierradentro —“the land of the interior”— derives from an archaeological site located in the north of the Andes in Cauca, Colombia. Protected by its monumental sculptures and its underground tombs, it shelters the vestiges of a vast pre-Hispanic culture known only by fragments.
As point of departure, Daniel Otero Torres updates pre- Columbian knowledge and legends from various regions of Latin America; imagines correspondences with archaic cultures around the Mediterranean, draws inspiration from Hindu and Egyptian deities, and weaves parallels with contemporary events and experiences that are personal to him. Borrowing the gaze of the anthropologist, the naturalist, the physicist, or even the reader of science fiction, he elaborates a hybrid and impure cosmogony made of rubbings and reconciliations.
His practice is thus that of fragmentation, collusion and detail. Each drawing is the result of a process of collecting archival or media images and photographs taken throughout his travels, which he combines into heterogeneous compositions. These combinations are then deployed, enlarged or miniaturized. Stripped of all contextual elements and transposed through the drawing on paper, stainless steel and ceramics.
Through various narrative paths —the forgotten female fighters during the conflicts of the XXth century, the psychotropic powers of the Brugmansia plant, the transformations of the jaguar man, the genetic variations at the origin of the evolution of the species, or the stray dogs answering to multiple names— the exhibition explores the themes of the journey between worlds, the links between sacred and profane, between vernacular cultures and global thinking, between intimate recalls and collective memory.
Tierradentro generates a new system of relationships between time and beings. It is a space where an alternative history of crossings and syncretisms is produced; where the stake is to reflect on what connects us to others from the point of view of the myth, of the political struggles, as much as of the affective and daily life. A place, a vessel, a feeling and a planet, for Daniel Otero Torres, Tierradentro is all of these at once.
ASÍ FUE
2019, The Pill, Istanbul
Exhibition view, Así Fue, 2019, The Pill, Istambul. © Daniel Otero Torres
Exhibition view, Así Fue, 2019, The Pill, Istambul. © Daniel Otero Torres
Chiens sans maître (III), 2019, ceramic, 66 x 49 x 18 cm.
El Graduado, 2019, mirror polished stainless steel, 122 x 140 x 30 cm.
© Daniel Otero Torres
© Daniel Otero Torres
On the occasion of his first solo show in Istanbul Así fue, the artist will present a new body of works he produced while in residency in Turkey during 2019.
He developed a mythology inspired by his research on the public policies of Turkey’s ‘Kôy Village Institute’. These policies were enacted in the 40’s in order to develop education in the rural zones. Despite their short lifespan, they significantly increased the number of primary schools in the country and their buildings grew exponentially within the decade in which they existed. They were later closed by the conventional political parties.
The corpus of works represent both the people and the processes integral to the construction of these institutes. The central goddess figure is made of a sum of portraits of Anatolian peasants involved in the constructions. The Graduate is composed of different student’s archives while playing an instrument in the schools.
The forms of the ceramic stray dogs are inspired from Hittite and ancient South American sculptures. Found in different countries and specially in Istambul, these dogs without master inhabit and guard the exhibition.
PAROXYSM OF SUBLIME
2019, Welcome to LACE with Flax Foundation, Los Angeles.
Curated by Anna Milone et Ana Iwataki.
Exhibition view, PAROXYSM OF SUBLIME, 2021, curated by Anna Milone et Ana Iwataki, Welcome to Lace with Flax foundation, Los Angeles. © Daniel Otero Torres
Detail I Borrachero, 2019, pencil and colored pencil on aluminium, nylon, steel, 700 x 310 x 300 cm. © Daniel Otero Torres
In this work, the artist has torn the machetes and weapons from their hands. They are floating in mid-air with brugmansias, also called Angel’s trumpets and “borrachero” in Colombia. This beautiful yet poisonous flower originates from South America near the Andes and now also blooms in the streets of Los Angeles.
The mesmerizing movement of the elements around the borrachero flower evokes violence as a senseless form of inebriation. The artist takes an interest in images from the past and their ability to intervene in the present.
(DÉ)PLACEMENTS
2017, MRAC / Musée régional d’art contemporain, Occitanie / Pyrénées - Méditerranée, Sérignan.
Curated by Sandra Patron.
Exhibition view, (Dé)placements, 2017, curated by Sandra Patron, MRAC Sérignan, France © Aurelien Mole
Detail I 1:12.5, 2017, bamboo, 3500 bricks of terracota, concrete, steel, mixed media, 300 x 310 x 300 cm. © Aurelien Mole
With the project (Dé)placements, Daniel Otero Torres began a research on vernacular architecture in Colombia such as the self-built buildings occupying the foothills of cities. With remarkable know-how, this way of living enables individuals to develop forms of resistance by recovering independently. In Bogotá, these shantytowns are called «Invasiones», a term with pejorative connotations that allows to better understand how these neighborhoods are considered by the powers in place: the word is reminiscent of a terminology used both in Europe and in the United States to designate any foreign body as a creeping threat.
In one of the pieces from this project, a bamboo scaffolding like those used across Asia stands imposing in the middle of the space. The half-built house suspended in the middle seems literally invaded by the bamboo structure, offering a reversal of perspective as to its original function. The scaffolding used to build the house has instead swallowed it. On both sides of this installation, Daniel Otero Torres positioned two chairs, which usually house the museum wardens in the exhibition halls. On one of them, in place of the traditional guardian, is a character encountered during a stay of the artist in an Indian community in Colombia, a wandering person who lives a life away from any material concern. To face it is to face an individual who has deliberately made the choice to get away from the logic of our contemporary societies, but it means also to take a look at this figure of the largely ignored museum keeper. On the other chair, a pile of postcards available to the public seems to invite us to travel: the image of a bus named Christopher Columbus unveils humorously how the tourism industry dismisses plays with the cliché of the exotic and that of great discoveries.
TIEMPO SIN VERTE
2018, pencil on aluminium, glass, plantes, steel, 86 x 160 x 49 cm.
