DAMIÁN ORTEGA

AUGUST 27, 2021 - JANUARY 16, 2022

Born in Mexico City in 1967, Damián Ortega is a leading Mexican contemporary artist. He first came to widespread attention at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 with Cosmic Thing, a Volkswagen Beetle perfectly dismantled and suspended from the ceiling, an ironic deconstruction of one of the cult objects of Mexican consumer culture. Since then, with his sense of humor and wit, Ortega has become known for the deconstruction of familiar objects and processes, altering their functions and transforming them into artworks that offer novel experiences and scenarios.

Ortega's work always plays with scale, ranging from the molecular to the cosmic, and this Project Atrium installation combines both. Drawing from an intimate recollection of putting his daughter to sleep, with a mobile over the bed, the artist has conceived a suspended rotating double helix. Reminiscent of the human DNA structure, this molecular choreography describes, in the artist's own words, “the passing of time as a continuous, daily movement that goes on for years.”