Exhibitions > Espacios Alternos
District & Co. Gallery
Man is a symbolic animal - said the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer - because his universe, in addition to being physical, is representational. In fact, what is the symbol if not a method of adaptation of man to his environment? This is how, consciously or unconsciously, the human spirit expresses itself through a multitude of forms, and art is one of them...
In the case of Fernando Varela, the aesthetic approach to his work immerses us in a complex network of signs and symbols, which are not only expression, but also a response to all series of stimuli, which, in his case, recognizes, leads and expresses through his works. Semiotic and semantic complexities that have been evident in the various series of recent years. Suddenly a heart, a brain or a language - presented on the surface of the support, or formally and gradually constructed from minimal elements that mutate until they become the referenced object - speak to us about reason, senses and emotions; composing a conceptual corpus that is difficult to decipher, since its language is and goes beyond the language of words. It is about what we see and know and what we know but do not see.
Treatise on semiotics or spiritual search? Self-portrait or mirror painting? Hermeticism or spiritual alchemy?…
In any case, there is an attitude of distancing oneself from reality, remaining only with oneself. Perhaps that is why we appreciate in his work an increasingly greater detachment from the material world, thus privileging the spiritual plane. Between the figurative and the conceptual, there is a constant investigation into the essential and inexhaustible meaning of life. Separated or facing each other, man and woman are represented as fragile and ethereal figures, reiterating with the spatial organization of the work, a search for balance between feminine and masculine forces, between the corporal and the spiritual, between the ritual and the mythological.
Fairy Melusina, Mother Goddess or simply Woman, the truth is that in this exquisite series, women appear, for the first time, as the protagonist in one of his works. Strange, different and emblematic, this is the whole of his production. With a virginal wing, like a goddess of waters, the woman appears as the giver of life. Blend of spirituality and wisdom. Bodies, fluids and nature are leitmotiv in this corpus of works that - with the subtlety and masterful display usual in his production, coupled with the delicacy of the paper support - collects his most recent reflections. Excessive introspection. Catharsis of symbols, concerns, emotions, feelings. Insatiable reference to the symbolic universe, perhaps to avoid confining its universe and its spirit, or perhaps to offer us, in the words of Gadamer,
Maria Elena Ditren
Director Museum of Modern Art (MAM)
