Pared de vidrio

This striking exhibition quite literally blurs the lines between fiction and reality, with a series of photographs of windows – the larger works containing around 24 photos.

Windows, the gateway between two places, are in themselves a powerful metaphor. With these windows, as the exhibition’s title – glass wall – suggests, the artist toys with the idea of a visual opening into another world that is smeared, barred and physically attached to the wall.

Salón Communal is the perfect setting for this play on windows. One of the photographs is an almost exact replica of the one in the room, driving home what curator Erika Martínez Cuervo describes as “the juxtaposition of window-window vs window-picture”. The airy space and plant-filled garden provide balance to the slight sense of claustrophobia created by these openings that are not openings.

Caroline Peña Bray’s work has been strongly influenced by illustrious artist Gerhard Richter, who is well-known for his unique style of almost abstract-realism. Caroline explains that those parallels are fitting because Richter uses blurred realities to confront a painful history of Germany, just as she uses these blurred views of Colombia to reflect a history and politics that are unclear and unresolved.

The show will be on until May 7 at Salón Communal – Carrera 3A #63-36 – open Monday to Friday, 10am-6pm.

Photos: Caroline Peña Bray

By Azzam Alkadhi