On the 27th of August, at 7pm, Zaratan opens the doors to the public to present the artworks by Itziar Aldasoro and Miguel A. Valdivia, artists in residency at Zaratan AIR 2016 during the month of August.

For this event, the artists are going to open the doors of their studios to show their works and researches.

The project developed by Itziar Aldasoro, called Uma Conversa (A Conversation), uses a number of different media (urban intervention, painting, photography, drawing) to establish a dialogue with the city of Lisbon. The purpose is to find a series of images, both real and metaphorical and abstract, speaking about the light, the passage of time, of the silence and the fragility in its relationship with the urban space.

The typical paving (“calçada portuguesa”) which covers the ground of the city, in particular, is revealed as a tremendously eloquent element: it is a multiplier of light and silent witness of the passage of time, slowly disintegrating and maybe one day disappearing in a series of timeless fragments.

With an interventionist and critical point of view, Miguel A. Valdivia presents a new series of drawings exploiting, among other things, the limits imposed by the two-dimensional spatiality of the page. We can almost say that they are games, small provocations, evasive attempts where the sign is looking for new spaces beyond its borders, putting to test the limits and possibilities implicit in the act of drawing. The spaces of the white sheets are covered by openings and obstacles, borders and windows, where politics, humor, irony and apocalyptic visions embrace.

BIOS:

Itziar Aldasoro
Itziar Aldasoro (Madrid, 1976) is a spanish artist formally trained in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and later on committed to her attraction to art. 
In her work she combines abstract and figurative elements, the latter being quite often elements from nature and the everyday, to elaborate an intimate discourse on fragility, silence and the passing of time, but also melancholy and distance. Even if her artistic practice is related with many different pictorial techniques, nowadays she is mainly focused on printmaking experiences, exploring different supports to features a concept. Itziar will be with us during the month of August, carrying out a residency proposal focused on the production of a series of artwork directly related with the city of Lisbon, seen through the lens of these recurring subjects.

Miguel Angel Valdivia
Miguel Angel Valdivia (Cidade do México,1979) is a mexican artist living between London, Paris and Naples. He obtained a MA in Fine Arts at the ENSBa (Paris) and a MA in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art (London) where he also teaches as a Visiting Lecturer. His visual language create an ironic view of our contemporary society, inspired by dystopian science fiction, and suggests a world in which the communication between individuals appears to have broken. Mastering smartly the classic techniques of illustration, he is now in the process of disorientating his drawing journey towards abstraction and simplification, to explore the narrative possibilities of his artwork once it is displayed. He participated in several exhibitions and has expanded his research through workshop, collaborations and curating independent publications.