Born in 1964 in Banaue Ifugao, Philippines. Lives and works in Paris, France<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few dates - 2016: Jusqu'\u00e0 ce que rien n'arrive, Curator: Pierre Vialle, Maison des Arts de Malakoff, France - 2015: Where is Madame<\/em> Pschitt<\/em>, Group Show, Galerie Ma\u00efa Muller, Paris, France - 2014 : The Drawing Room<\/em>, Manila, Philippines \/ Ifugao Red,<\/em> Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines - 2013 : Manila Vice<\/em>, Mus\u00e9e International des Arts Modestes, S\u00e8te, France - 2012 : Bastard of misrepresentation<\/em>, Gallery Topaz, New York, USA - 2010 : September exhibition<\/em>, MUDAM, Luxemburg - 2007 : Damag, Ocampo, Deroubaix<\/em>, Magnet Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines - 2005 : Miserable intentio<\/em>ns, Gaston Damag and Manuel Ocampo, Galerie Alimentation G\u00e9n\u00e9rale d'Art Contemporain, Luxembourg - 2000 : Paris as a stopover,<\/em> Mus\u00e9e d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France - 1999 : La Naturaleza de la Cultura, Gaston Damag with Manuel<\/em> Ocampo<\/em>, Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is struggles that make history. It is struggles that make us. Without them we would have no history, no language, no being.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Decolonizing the Spirit<\/em> (1986).<\/p>\n\n\n\n By studying and observing subjects as vast as anthropology, ethnology or art history, Gaston Damag searches the means of construction of\notherness: from what point of view an object, a person or group become exotic? Who is the Other? How to understand them? Why make a\ndifference? With artists such as Kader Attia, Dierk Schmidt, Jimmy Durham or Kendell Geers, he shares a playing field which is that of the\nethnographic museum. On the walls, floors and in the windows are presented everyday objects, rituals, costumes, works and documents (written,\nvideo, audio) from various civilizations throughout history. The objects, locked, decontextualized and mute, are subject to new orders, new\ninterpretations that distort the reality of a culture. These museums, mainly active in the West, are overflowing with of all kinds collections and ask\nquestions: where do these objects and works come from? How and by whom are they staged? For what story? The artist produces a scathing\ncommentary on museums by pouring acid on the surface of photographs of exhibition showrooms saturated with displays and visitors. A rewriting of\nhistory is requested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For over thirty years, in the United States as in France, Gaston Damag has experienced this disturbing encounter by\ndiscovering Filipino objects removed from their reality. Through them, he finds his own culture, which is - through the scenography and associations\n- amputated of its meaning and its usage. By observing collections and temporary exhibitions, the artist studies the presentation devices, fixtures\nand interpretative methods that structure a dominant discourse. Then he takes elements from different cultures: wooden statuettes, knives, idols,\nmasks. They are reproduced, multiplied, decontextualized and restaged. Gaston Damag appropriates museological presentation devices to inject a\ndisruption produced by the merger of anthropology, ethnology and contemporary art. The windows are deconstructed, laminated, broken, mirrors\nincrease the confusion, multiplication demystifies sacred objects. These are, by the way, harvested from markets. The artist is more interested in\ntheir market value than their supposed authenticity. Cultural artefacts (Asian, African, South American) sold to tourists in search of exoticism,\nbecome subject to a transformation. They are reproduced, moulded, melted, recycled, hybridised, painted, split apart. Some patterns are recurrent,\nsuch as Bululs, Philippine statuettes carved in wood that are used in ceremonies to ask for the protection of rice plantations. The Bululs through the\nwhole protean work of Gaston Damag, they are constitutive of his cultural identity and function as an alter ego, which, through repetition and\nappearance challenge the viewer on a set of distortions, misunderstandings and approximations. His obsessive work of the damaged representation\nof the Bululs finds an expressionist translation in the heart of paintings animated by the brutality of colours and gestures. From German\nExpressionism to contemporary painting (Manuel Ocampo, Georg Baselitz, Jonathan Meese), via Francis Picabia and AR Penck, Gaston Damag\nparticipates in an uncompromising pictorial movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations are involved in the deconstruction of a speech inherited from a persistent colonial history. A\nstory nourished by misunderstandings, deep-rooted stereotypes, denial and contempt. The practice of decontextualisation and manipulation of\ncultural objects upsets the cultural imperialism, the tired relationship between North and South, between an allegedly dominant culture and an\nallegedly dominated culture. By the hybridisation of philosophies and of artistic and cultural codes, Gaston Damag opens a critical area where\nnotions of authority and power faint in favour of a lively and uninhibited creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julie Crenn<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":21438,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-21437","exposition","type-exposition","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-passees"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiamuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exposition\/21437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiamuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exposition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiamuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exposition"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maiamuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiamuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maiamuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}