Page 49 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

Osías Yanov, Soplo de humo, 2019, courtesy Osías Yanov Osías Yanov, Josefina, Poroto y Tronco, 2019. Courtesy Osías Yanov

Researcher, essayist, and political geographer Sinthujan The archaic and instinctual knowledge carried
Varatharajah looks critically into the aftermath of within us is a focus of his work, tracing the way this
the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms and riots in Sri Lanka— embodied archive is used and expanded through our
and the wars and genocide that followed. These led daily interactions. A key element of his contribution is
hundreds of thousands of Tamils into exile. For those the everyday utensil of the spoon. Exploring different
who emigrated to Europe, divided Berlin was their processes of group play by incorporating this object
personal entry point. At the time, the Berlin Wall played of sensual significance for the mouth, the body, and
a little-known role as a permeable gateway, a transit the tongue, he celebrates the spoon as symbolizing
point used as a loophole of survival for many then the permeability of the body. The artist engages
“Third World” refugees. A special agreement between with the object as a tool of “re-sensitization,” an
East and West Germany enabled refugees to enter implement used for feeding, for putting things into
through East Germany to settle in the West. In the each others’ mouths, and as a way of describing
1980s, the political cracks in the walls of partitioned bodies nesting against each other. Through an
Germany became a lifeline of survival for the Tamil. This immersive installation caressed by soft colored light,
specific history of the Wall is the point of departure sculptural objects are constructed using the spoon:
for Varatharajah’s investigations into physical and table-like sculptures and a clock as well as columns
cultural borders and the memories of displacement of extending from floor to ceiling. The low tables are
this community. Gathered in the exhibition space at covered with a thick layer of salt - a traditional
the architectural complex at ExRotaprint are different healing substance known for its capacity to regulate
traces of these transit routes, such as oral histories, emotional temper, clean bad energies, and heal
newspaper clippings, photographs, maps, and other wounds - a landscape that visitors are invited to draw
collected materials. Together they form a living archive on with their fingers and that is used by the artist for
reflecting on issues of encampment, statelessness, and body choreographies.
spatial power, bringing forth a displaced people and
their untold stories. The spoons will be used as clothing or accessories
in excursions that Yanov will carry out in the
Osías Yanov is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. surroundings of Wedding and other spaces throughout
His projects include performances, events, installations, the city. As part of his artistic project, he frequented a
drawings, sculptures, and videos. As an artist of nudist colony in Córdoba, Argentina. In his queer/cuir
performative actions, he draws on cultural objects and practice of ser con el otre (being with others), Yanov
memories that affect our bodily ways of being in the uses play and the language of bodies in motion to
world and with each other. disarticulate stereotypes and other fixed territories.

WORLD of ART 49