In his work, Mario Sergio Alvarez (1993) explores the interaction between environment, culture, and identity. He has, for instance, always wondered what a sequel to George Orwell’s satirical fable Animal Farm would be like. What has remained of the animals’ identities after these were so carefully deconstructed by the pigs? What is left of their own values and standards? How can they start to rebuild their existence? What will they leave in the past and what will they be taking into the present? Having grown up in communist Cuba himself, Alvarez draws parallels between his own background and Orwell’s story in the work De boerderij (2023). His installation can be interpreted as a collection of characters who have left everything behind and, as empty shells, have to start over again in a different location. At the same time, the meticulous paintings of sleeping animals in the background seem to be making them wonder what animal they were in the past, or will be in the future. At Prospects, Alvarez is showing fragments of this installation.
To Alvarez, furniture is a symbol of migration. Similar to human beings, he considers old wardrobes to be repositories: unchanging on the outside and filled with history, and constantly ready to be filled with new ideas. The artist thus also touches on an existential question: What makes us into who we are?
Text: Esther Darley
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang