Luis Fernando Zapata (Colombia. 1951-1994)
Luis Fernando Zapata was an artist deeply committed to a practice that immanently reflected the inevitable reflections that arise when we confront the fragility of our existence. His exhaustive research into Mesoamerican, transcontinental Egyptian, and Middle Eastern cultures, the advent of the HIV epidemic, and the inevitable and progressive physical deterioration in those who, like him, carried it, sustained his practice, and indelibly influenced his artistic iconography, poetically focusing it on the expression of imponderable and eternal notions.
Implicit in the character of his works was an inclination towards a restricted gesture, a presence that does not cause a disturbance, nourished by a provincial origin that kept him safe from any fickleness of current artistic events. Fatality would make this natural principle the best vehicle for its searches and idealized reconstructions of ancient rites and magical invocations.
The work of Luis Fernando Zapata from 1990 onwards refers to an investigation into the first artistic forms, to the mystery of the disappearance of art and the reasons for its existence. However, the support of his pieces transcends the naturalistic essence of ancient art as understood by the figures of animalistic intention found in his expressions. His iconography is part of the context in which, through the symbolism discovered in archaeological excavations of ancestral funerary practices, attempts are made to discover "doors of light" toward new visions of our world.
Derrida suggests that "there is no cinder without fire" and that cinder is both a bodily imprint and a reminder of the flame that can never be restored. Through his works, Zapata manages to transcend his physical condition, extend the limits of memory, and strengthen the fragility of conception by physically manifesting it. And so, he restores in us the seemingly extinct flame.
"The immemorial," the emblematic title of our exhibition, is inspired by the semantics of Jean-François Lyotard, who describes 'the immemorial' as "that which can never be remembered or forgotten, is that which returns mysteriously." Now, on the 30th anniversary of his premature departure due to complications related to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, we celebrate his life, honoring his artistic creativity and presenting the most iconic series that comprehensively represents the entirety of his trajectory in our exhibition.
There is no alternative for those of us who remained and were witnesses. Summarizing the sublime in words is impossible. We are brought to a standstill; looking, inevitably seeing, and contemplating each line and gesture is now our job. No one can plagiarize its existence; each work is a poem, an omen, a sponsorship, or an incitement.
Luis Fernando Zapata suspends himself in the lightness of his being; he walks because the wind wants him to; he does not know his destiny; we know his actions, but not his being, like the clouds.
