Winston Hotel Warmoesstraat 123-129 1012 J A Amsterdam. Tel +31 20 6231380
http://www.desk.nl/~hksteen/ e-mail:hksteen@desk.nl
October 28 1998
Opening 20.00 hours
Winston Hotel in Amsterdam presents "Dante's Inferno" an installation by Raul Marroquin as part of a group exhibition titled "The New Face of Hell"
In "Dante's Inferno" Marroquin assembles and presents an anthology of different approaches by artists scholars and illustrators to this particular segment from Dante Alighieri's master work through out almost
700
years and through that analyzes the way in which this particular work is
understood and interpreted through out different periods in history, as
well as the way in which the Florentine poet (1265 - 1321) looked up on
hell, punishment - and the reasons for punishment- in that particular
period dominated by Judeo-Christian morals and ethics in that part of Europe.
Raul Marroquin especially selected this work to use it as a metaphor and the departure point to open a broader discussion about the role of the artist, the visual artist, in today's postindustrial, information society where the audio-visual bombardment of advertisement.
entertainment and the media have take over the (former) role of the artist in the community.
With in the capitalist parameters in which politics, economics and culture take place in the Western world at present, artists hardly can perform their traditional role characteristic of the entire industrialist period: reflecting up on developments in society and bringing them back to the community from a different perspective. Today they are relegated -in the best cases- to illustrate concepts and ideas put on the table by curators, philosophers and scholars or, in most cases, to operate as graphic or industrial designers -artisans- that are there to implement the ideas of what business and industry think is required in the market.
In his installation "Dane's Inferno" R. Marroquin uses this particular part of La Divina Commedia to discuss, and to a great deal renegociate, the visual artist role in today's neo-liberal, Western society that tries to force the artist into one more source of financial source totally disregarding their (the artist) responsibility towards their vocation and the community from which they are an integral part.
In "Dante's Inferno" Marroquin combines the traditional frame work of the installation (wall works, objects and projections) with the "Dante's Inferno" page in the world wide web published in his web site De HoeksteenNet. URL:<http://www.desk.nl/~hksteen/>
An on-line discussion is simultaneously held where artists, theoreticians, scholars, critics and politicians are invited to participate taking La Divina Commedia in general and the Inferno in particular as points of departure to basically ventilate today's morals and ethics and the role that the artist can and must play in this important debate.
Raul Marroquin was born in Bogota Colombia in 1948. After following studies in the School of Fine Arts in La Universidad Nacional in Bogota, Marroquin went to the Netherlands to follow postgraduate studies at The Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht (1971) Since than he has worked with audio and video (and is considered one of the pioneers of video art in the Low Lands) objects and installations. He also has been producing and programming radio and television for more than 20 years. One of his latest ventures is De Hoeksteen Live! Television a 12 hour long live political and financial television program cablecasted by Salto (Amsterdam local television) since 1992.
He regularly exhibits in the Netherlands, other European countries, North and South America and his works are part of many public and private collections all over the world.
Since 1979 Marroquin has giving lectures and conducted workshops in universities, academies, art schools, etc. in more than a dozen countries. He writes for academic publications and special interest magazines on a regular basis.
