From 12 de March 2025 al 15 de June del 2025
Juan Fernando Herrán. Materialidades y constelaciones has a retrospective character centered on a selection of works made since the late 1990s, and includes earlier works that share illuminating visual and thematic interests. A significant number of the works were conceived and created during the artist’s extended stays in Medellín, initially thanks to the invitation to participate in MDE11, which brought him closer to the social and urban complexity of the city. The exhibition additionally presents sketches, records, drawings, and models that refer to different stages of the processes carried out by the artist, which culminate in photographs, sculptures, and videos that, despite being finished, possess a non finito character by remaining in an intermediate and inconclusive state between the initial referent and the work that transcends it. Likewise, each of the works suggests questions that reveal human, sociopolitical, and economic conditions and needs, as well as spiritual and existential realities.
A significant consequence of these processes is the creation—sometimes simultaneous, sometimes linked and sequential—of related works stemming from the same motivation, theme, or shared interest. These are works from which it is possible to configure “constellations” that reveal the multiple layers of the realities explored by the artist and reflect the diverse material and conceptual perspectives with which he works them.
Three axes intersect in the works and constellations of the different galleries: first, the concept of power addressed by Herrán in a range of expressions that encompass the power of social and political domination, the constructive power of human beings in their daily lives, and the deconstructive power with aims of discovery and critique by the artist; second, that of historical processes which he unfolds by bringing to light sedimented layers of the past to illuminate present situations and envision possible futures; third, the axis of social and cultural practices in which the life-death impulse is confronted; in them, the capacity of matter and structures to communicate both survival strategies and the construction of imaginaries and meanings becomes evident.
Upon interacting with the works, viewers can re-create images that communicate in an illuminating and convergent manner the referents and their practical aspects, their social conditioning, and symbolic and existential dimensions.
Juan Fernando Herrán. Materialidades y constelaciones arises from the collaboration between the Banco de la República and MAMM: in Medellín, the project includes the exhibition at this Museum and a public space intervention of a version of the work Héroes mil at the Centro Cultural del Banco de la República, located on Avenida Colombia in the city center. After its run in Medellín, the exhibition will open in Bogotá at the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia starting in September 2025.
Coordination: Ana Ruiz Valencia
Special acknowledgments: Museo de Arte – Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Acknowledgments: Oficina de Proyectos
Exhibition spaces
MAMM
12 March 2025 – 15 June 2025
Centro Cultural de Medellín – Banco de la República
12 March 2025 – 18 September 2025
Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU) – Bogotá
18 September 2025 – 2 March 2026
In alliance with:
Patrocina
Apoya
Institutional ally
