Carlos Barberena: Años de MiedoBy Christiane L. Vaca, Photography by Glow Ruiz. / HECHO Magazine Born in Granada, Nicaragua in 1972, Carlos Barberena de la Rocha comes from a family of artists, poets, painters and musicians; an environment that strongly influenced his artistic formation. As a young boy he left Nicaragua during the war and lived with his two older brothers, both talented artists. A self-described late bloomer, he eventually found himself experimenting with different mediums and becoming an artist in his own right. His works, including paintings, sculptures, photographs and engravings, have been exhibited all over the world in places including, the United States, where he now resides, Germany, Spain, Brazil and most recently at Covenant San Francisco in his hometown of Granada. HECHO Magazine: How would you describe your creative process? Carlos Barberena: - It begins with an idea that you work at. To me, it’s more like receiving, where you become like an antenna and you capture different situations, different images. That’s when the process begins to ‘digest.’ Then, when it’s time to apply technique, you already know what you want to work with. It’s a constant labor that begins with this process. HM: What is meant by the title of your exhibit, “Años de Miedo” (Years of Fear)? Is it in reference to any personal experience, or is it meant to be exclusively political or social commentary? CB: - I find it to be a personal experience. Thirty years ago, I was seven years old and many images from that time remain on my mind. I was watching my brothers run, having to hide all the time because Somoza’s guards were after them. I had cousins who went through the same thing and uncles who died during the Somoza dictatorship. Then experiencing the revolution, taking part in the protests out on the street that were broken up by the Guard, I think it was all experiences that I tried to channel into my art. All these very complex things make up Nicaragua’s history. When I left, people would ask me what was going on in Nicaragua, and I just got tangled up trying to explain about Somoza, the revolution, the Contras…you just can’t explain it. I think this is the idea for this series, a reflection on war and its consequences. HM: It’s interesting to note the structural contrasts going on in most of your pieces, a balance between simple and complex, black and white. CB: - Yes, I feel that the contrast between black and white gives the project more strength. Sometimes I think that this series chose its own medium. So, what better to illustrate fear than through black and white? HM: Do you believe that your art tells a story uniquely related to the Nicaraguan experience? CB: -No, it is decidedly not just the Nicaraguan experience. If you set this in another country that has been devastated by war, you’ll have the same thing. And what is important is to call them “years of fear,” because at the center of it all is the fear. It’s how different parties rule a population by fear, whether you’re a mother concerned for your child, concerned for your family, whether you’re being followed or threatened unless you turn your neighbor in. It’s the fear of living such a violent life. That’s the point of my exhibit, to reflect upon what we’ve lived through, the world over, not just Nicaragua. As you can see in a few of the pieces, some are about what happened in Abu Ghraib, some are in reference to article 5, Guantánamo, etcetera. There are different points of view. HM: Do you believe art to be an end unto itself, or do you think it should serve a higher purpose?
CB: - I think that one creates art, first of all, to purge many things and to communicate them, whatever they are. It’s not like I’m hoping someone will change their life or opinions after seeing my work. I’m just exposing my point of view, like a writer or a musician; it’s an act of communication though, and should not be merely decorative.
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"The Scream" Linocut by Carlos Barberena"La Mirada Incisiva de Carlos Barberena"Por Luis Fernando Vargas Vega / ANCORA, La Nación En la Galería Nacional el artista nicaragüense exhibe su colección ‘Master Prints’, grabados que reflexionan sobre problemas del siglo XXI. "Irónicas apropiaciones" Carlos Barberena viaja a la historia del arte y vuelve con grabados en los que recrea obras maestras afinadas para nuestro tiempo. Aquí apreciamos The Jungle (after Lam), alusión a una pintura del cubano Wilfredo Lam. En el siglo XV, el pintor y grabador alemán Alberto Durero representó la llegada del fin de los tiempos en Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis (1498). Un poco más de quinientos años después, el artista Carlos Barberena remite a la misma idea –es más, al mismo grabado –; pero, esta vez, el Apocalipsis es liderado por Mickey Mouse, los nazis, Ronald McDonald y las bombas nucleares. La reinterpretación contemporánea de la pieza de Durero pertenece al más reciente proyecto de Barberena: la exposición Master Prints , una colección de veintitrés grabados que surgen de la “apropiación” de obras clásicas del arte. “Quise hacer un homenaje a estos maestros y procuré traer su obra al tiempo en que vivimos. ¿Cómo hubiese hecho esa pieza el artista si estuviera viviendo actualmente?”, dice el creador de la colección que se empezó a gestar en el 2009. El artista somete la obra de referencia a un proceso de intervención con imágenes e iconos de la cultura contemporánea. Su transgresión pretende brindar un nuevo significado a la pieza, adaptándola a los temas que imperan en la sociedad globalizada. Con sátira y cierto humor negro, Master Prints aborda los problemas de la contaminación ambiental, la mala explotación de los recursos naturales, el consumismo y las dificultades de las poblaciones migrantes. “Es como un juego. Utilizo la sátira para atraer a la gente, pero planteo algo muy serio”, afirma Barberena. La McMona es una reinterpretación del siglo XXI de la Mona Lisa (1503-1519), obra de Leonardo Da Vinci. Barberena explica que los temas de la pieza son la muerte y el consumismo. El título juega con los significados de la letra M, que aquí representan la muerte y a la vez a una cadena de comida rápida. “En los Estados Unidos, el consumo de la comida chatarra causa obesidad y demasiadas enfermedades”, comentó el artista acerca de su obra, que toma como referente el arte tradicional de la celebración mexicana del día de los muertos. Exilio y otras peripecias. Barberena nació en Nicaragua en 1972. Salió de su país siendo un adolescente, hacia Costa Rica, para escapar de la guerra interna ocurrida durante la década de 1980. Más tarde emigró a Chicago, donde vive. “A partir de mi propia experiencia, al ser inmigrante nicaragüense y residir en Estados Unidos, salen las críticas que hago al sistema consumista y las políticas neoliberales que se aplican a los países latinoamericanos”, asegura el grabador. Desde muy pequeño, Barberena tuvo un contacto permanente con el arte. Proviene de una familia de tradición artística: su abuela fue poetisa, y sus hermanos, artistas visuales. La estimulación temprana en el arte terminó de desarrollarse con su llegada a Costa Rica y su encuentro con el trabajo de Francisco Amighetti. El Niño y la Nube (after Amighetti) refleja el fuerte impacto que Paco Amighetti ejerce en Barberena. El grabado original muestra a un niño que mira nubes, imaginando y creando. La apropiación de Barberena interviene la imagen colocando una pared inmensa. “La reinterpreté pensando en mi caso: un refugiado que no podía ir a su país; esa pared tapaba el sueño del niño de seguir jugando en su tierra”, reflexiona el artista. Aún con el peso de la tradición familiar y su gran interés en el arte, Barberena decidió que la academia no era lo suyo. “La sentía muy cuadrada. A veces, un profesor me decía que mi trabajo no servía y rompía mi dibujo”, afirma el grabador, quien optó por ser autodidacta y por asistir a clases en los museos y galerías. Barberena destaca la variedad de sus influencias. Por un lado, resaltan los artistas clásicos europeos, como Alberto Durero, Francisco de Goya y Pablo Picasso. Tampoco deja de lado la influencia latinoamericana: es admirador del grabador mexicano José Guadalupe Posada y los pintores nicaragüenses Armando Morales y Leonel Vanegas . Transgresión y reconfiguración. La apropiación es el centro de la muestra Master Prints . Carlos Barberena no trata de ocultar sus referencias, sino hacerlas explícitas. El artista quiere llamar la atención del espectador para que reconozca a primera vista la obra clásica que intervino con elementos contemporáneos. El método de Barberena es transgredir el contexto de la obra para cambiar su significado, convirtiéndola en algo nuevo a pesar de utilizar el mismo título y la misma composición que el artista original. En El grito (after Munch) , el artista trata de responder al porqué de la angustia y la desesperación del hombre moderno de la icónica obra El grito (1893), creada por el noruego Edvard Munch. “Inserté un hongo de una explosión nuclear, la contaminación y los barcos militares. Quise dar una respuesta a las personas, mi interpretación de lo que veo en El grito ”, explica el autor de la pieza. Barberena se ha expresado por varios medios: instalación, pintura y escultura; sin embargo, se enamoró del grabado. “Es una técnica que produce múltiples originales; entonces, las ideas llegan a un público más amplio en comparación con la pintura”, afirma el artista. Los grabados que conforman Master Prints fueron elaborados por medio de dos técnicas. La primera es la xilografía, una forma de impresión que utiliza una plancha de madera en la que se talla la imagen deseada con una gubia; la segunda técnica es su variante: el grabado en linóleo, técnica en la que se sustituye la plancha de madera por una porción de linóleo, material blando y uniforme utilizado para revestir suelos. “La xilografía o el linóleo dan más libertad; puede usarse un pedazo de playwood e imprimirse en un papel de grabado o en un papel de periódico; además, existe la posibilidad de utilizar una prensa o imprimir a mano, con cuchara. Entonces no hay ninguna traba u obstáculo para producir la obra”, asegura Carlos Barberena. Además de la facilidad, el artista encuentra, en el grabado clásico, un encanto estético. Asegura que el contraste que hay entre el blanco y el negro brinda una expresividad muy propia de sus temas. Master Prints es más que un homenaje a aquellos artistas que han influido en Carlos Barberena. La exhibición invita a reflexionar sobre los problemas presentes en la sociedad y a hacer un recorrido por la historia del arte. No son muy diferentes los sentimientos y las preocupaciones que vivió Durero en el siglo XV y los que vive Barberena: la diferencia está en que, para el último, la caída del ser humano será grabada y estará disponible en diferentes puntos de venta. RECONOCIMIENTOS
Carlos Barberena ha expuesto individualmente en Costa Rica, España, México, Nicaragua y los Estados Unidos. En representación del arte nicaragüense concurrió a Una mirada al grabado Iberoamericano en el XIII Salón de Arte en el Centro Cultural Mexicano en Washington. Barberena también participó en la VIII Trienal de la Estampa y el Grabado Original, en Chamalieres, Francia. Ha estado presente en la exhibición Les Saltimbanques, en homenaje a Gustave Doré, en el Museo de Arte Roger-Quilliot MARQ, de Francia. Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Nacional de la Estampa 2012, otorgado por el Instituto Nicaragüense de Cultura en Managua, Nicaragua. "Ofrenda" Linocut by Carlos Barberena"Ofrenda / Offering" (after Gauguin) is my linocut included in the "Thresholds to Conservation" Print Portfolio published by the Art House in McAllen, TX in 2009.
"Thresholds to Conservation" is the first Rio Grande Valley Collaborative printmaking portfolio produced in response to a call for artist, printmakers, and educators by Reynaldo Santiago, curator at the Art House Gallery in McAllen, Texas. Invited to participate in the portfolio are a unique group of international and local artists who have interpreted images, each with a specific message, based on the title via a variety of printmaking techniques. All prints are original, hand pulled, and signed by the artist. novus order seclorum ut patet in fixuras de Carlos Barberena / The New World Order as Shown on the Prints of Carlos Barberena *By Leticia Cortez / El Beisman Magazine - Chicago It is a pleasure to try something new and in this case to review a show and its works of art via the medium of the Internet. Thanks to this new technology, everyone has access to events across the world or in this case to view the prints of Carlos Barberena at Prospectus Art Gallery in Chicago. Before going on to describe the disturbing, yet spectacular conceptual landscapes found in his prints, one can reflect on the presence the Internet plays in our lives. In this case it does so in a positive way allowing the viewer to cross physical barriers and experience his works of art, and the message within it. It allows any person to cross the space and time we are usually confined to by the physical matter. So I turned on the computer and went to the website, and began to see and take in what he portrays in his prints. I started with his website’s gallery of master prints from: Who Lives By The Sword… to Ceci nest pas une pipe, and everything in between. What is captivating in the beauty of his work are his combination of images which unveil a nightmarish world of past historical events; from ancient to present times. Barberena uses images from pop culture, from present and past day societies, as well as from political and cultural tragedies. He uses past artworks and manipulates them to recontextualize the meaning from a present day point of view. By examining the elements that are destroying our culture, society and people; while exploring our complicity with such forces. The viewer is never let off the hook. We are living in a McDonald’s dominated society as the McMona and the McShitter show us. The Refugees is a print depicting a group of refugees fleeing their homeland for reasons unknown and approaching the land of McDonald’s. It is the familiarity of present day items found in his prints that awaken us to the reality or nightmare this reality has become. In Frijoles y Fusiles there is a sinister Uncle Sam-like general with cadavers in the background flying all around, including one flying toward the US flag in the shape of a heart. The general is Efrain Ríos, who is holding the bible of Frijoles y Rifles (Guns and Beans) and the words Ríos de Sangre Montt (Montt Rivers of Blood) emblazoned on the banner by his waist. This symbolizes the reign of terror after the dictator assumed power with the help of the U.S. in the coup d’etat in 1982, which is known as the “Gun and Beans” killing campaign. During his dictatorship, he is known to have killed around 10,000 people, mostly indigenous Mayas of Ixil descent. Trained by the infamous School of the Americas, he was supported by the Reagan Administration; so he is known to be one of Uncle Sam’s nephew. He was recently tried for crimes against humanity and genocide and was sentenced to 80 years in prison, but the constitutional court of Guatemala overturned the conviction. Transcending the U.S., Barberena examines injustices occurring in the world due to the behavior of the imperial powers and the First World. One is The Palestinian Mother who symbolizes the suffering of the Palestinian people under the oppression of Israel with the sanction of the U.S. The British Prostitute demonstrates Carlos’s capacity to tie the past with the current forces of imperial oppression. There is a fantastic recreation of the Whore of Babylon, a multi-headed beast, who has a surveillance camera as one of its many demonic heads. This of course mirrors our surveillance state through all means possible from cellphones to the Internet, as we all know thanks to Edward Snowden. In "War is Peace" (named after Orwell’s novel) we find three skeletal figurines. The first skull face with the Mickey Mouse ears is Obama, clutching his Nobel peace prize, even though he continues the military industrial wars. Uncle Sam occupies the center, chest displaying medals from BP, UN, McDonald’s and other corporate symbols. The third is the control mechanism religion, a skeletal priest with a cross, money and horns. In Prometheus II he shows us the Greek who stole the secret of fire from the gods; and in this case an artist who is being condemned and didn’t expect it. One of my favorites is Ceci nest pas une pipe (This is not a Pipe) which is named after René Magritte’s piece by the same name; except in Barberena’s print the pipe is not a pipe, it’s a gun. So the image of the gun leaves no room for the imagination, there’s no pipe, but plenty of violence via this symbol of death. In Monsanto he depicts the damage to the environment, to our health, to one of the native and principal staples in our diet: Corn. This print opens with a cornhusk full of skulls inside, quite appropriate for what it symbolizes. And this criminal entity Monsanto is just another profiteer in our history thanks to the US and its trade policies when it comes to business like Chiquita who destroys our land in the name of profits. In El Niño y la Nube a child looks longingly up towards the sky, the only existing color within his space, and to a cloud, changing shape with his imagination. Depending on our point of view, this can be sad or joyful. The image is very cubist-like including the child who is by a wall. The wall could be any wall in the world; the US/México wall, the Israel/Palestine wall. This barrier is one created and built by some people to keep others out or inside. What the print shows most of all is the child’s desire to one day climb out of his world trap. In his print, Self-Portrait after Van Gogh, the artist depicts himself in the image of Van Gogh. Two artists occupying the same image. There is something hidden, a mirror reflection, a portrayal of what is meant to be hidden; but is open to willing eyes in the peculiar universe where art merges with life. I’ll end with The Scream adaptation, for no particular reason other than I found it visually frightening and capable of waking anyone out of their apathy. Based on The Scream by Edvard Munch, this version has an exploding nuclear bomb in the background and surroundings images of industry and pollution. The man on the bridge is screaming and the couple is walking away while some people on boats are crossing the waters toward the city. Life goes on, will the viewer wake-up? Carlos Barberena uses his prints to show us the horrors and injustices created by mankind. Besides the visuals, what I enjoy most about his work is that he mixes beauty, politics, history, science in this modern world. His work makes us question our surroundings and ourselves. The prints scream: “I won’t accept this injustice, stop being afraid, wake-up and challenge this new world order.” *Leticia Cortez. Born in México and grew up in Chicago. She worked as a teacher at Truman College. She is a writer, educator and activist who currently lives and teaches in Santa Fe, Nuevo Mexico
"Venus 2.0" Linocut by Carlos BarberenaIn this print I appropriate the iconography and composition of the Botticelli’s painting “The Birth of Venus”, to which I made some adaptations with images that refer to contemporary issues such as environmental pollution, exploitation of natural resources, abuse of power as well the high cost of the wars prompted by our “love” of oil in the “birth” of the twenty-first century.
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