De tuin door Mario Sergio Alvarez
Over het werk
Ca 6 x 1.70 meter
Olieverf op hout
2021
De tuin (Dutch for ‘the garden’) is an installation of 27 pieces of wood with oil paint. These pieces of wood come from 3 kitchens that Mario disassembled during his first job here as an immigrant. This period represents the beginning of his integration process in the Netherlands, which felt somewhat chaotic and uncertain. A period of adjustment to a new system and culture, in which he sometimes had to give up his passion in order to survive.
Mario decided to keep these 27 pieces of wood, destined for the trash, as a metaphor for his adaptation to a new context. The plants painted on these pieces are from official catalogs of the Dutch government on exotic plants. These catalogs distinguish plants from other countries into different categories:
plants that survive in the Dutch environment,
plants that are illegal in the Netherlands because they have no natural enemies and therefore threaten the ecosystem,
and finally legal plants that are not invasive.
During this period the artist has always wondered what kind of plant he is going to be.
When all 27 pieces are put together, they form an exotic garden in which the different categories of plants are difficult to distinguish from each other.
Over de maker
The main interest of Mario Sergio Alvarez, which is a recurring theme in all his artworks, is context. In particular, the way in which it creates political and cultural tensions in society. But also the way in which context shapes the concept of “identity”, “nationality” and “home”.
Inspired by his own experience, he questions various aspects of these concepts through multidisciplinary art such as video, photography, installations and paintings.
Mario is a Cuban artist. In Cuba, the many political tensions create a chaotic context in which concepts of “truth” and “history” themselves are constantly changing so that the established power can survive. That is why his work usually has a strong political influence, trying to question predetermined concepts of truth.
In 2020 was Mario Sergio Alvarez’ werk onderdeel van een virtuele groepstentoonstelling bij Festival Hot Wheelz’. Chicago, U.S.A. In Nijmegen had hij in 2022 een windowshow bij Stichting RUIS en een solo-expositie Calm Sun tijdens de Kunstnacht door Derde Wal. De tuin is de inzending van Mario Sergio Alvarez voor de Open Call EXODUS van het Bijbels Museum en Buitenplaats Doornburgh.
