The sea was dressed in feathers and the ice was painted red

Josefina Guilisasti

09.09.2021 – 20.11.2021

Lucía Mendoza presents The sea was dressed in feathers and the ice was painted red, an exhibition by Chilean artist Josefina Guilisasti, curated by Christian Viveros – Fauné, and that is part of Apertura – Madrid Gallery Weekend 2021.

We are especially proud of this exhibition that has helped us to develop and delve into our personal endeavor to show the role of contemporary art as a pillar and engine of a common movement towards sustainability from practices and aesthetics that hybridize and seek a broad expression of artistic creation in an expanded, flexible, free, reflective, propositional, and stimulating space.

In Tierra del Fuego, almost 500 years ago, we find reminiscences of the West’s unleashed purpose of separating civilization -culture- from nature.

In 1592, almost 70 years after the discovery of the Strait of Magellan, a fleet of English corsairs set sail for the “New World” with the purpose of circumnavigating the earth and, in passing, ravaging the Spanish colonies. After several misfortunes during the voyage, the only ship that managed to approach the destination was the Desire under the command of Captain John Davis. The crew, severely stricken by hunger and disease, decided to remain on Penguin Island in front of the coast of Puerto Deseado, Argentina. On that island, they slaughtered about 20,000 penguins – a species recently discovered by Europeans – with sticks, which they dried, salted, and then stored in the ship’s holds. Weeks later,as the ship approached the Equator, the heat of the tropics facilitated the decomposition of the birds’ flesh, infesting the precious cargo, and many of the crew fell ill and perished at sea before reaching Irish shores in mid-1593. The plunder did not end with this massacre, this spirit of dispossession became the subject of this exhibition, curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné.