SELF

SELF, the Anglo-Saxon term that names the exhibition, alludes to the unit from the individual’s perspective, the self as a unit, the non-fluctuating thing of the individual despite the multiple transformations of matter. For example, the seed of a tree, of a pine (fundamental matter for Ramos’ imagination), even if it becomes a tree, it is still the same, essentially a seed. It is known as selfhood, the uniqueness of being beyond its becoming: the seed continues to be a seed beyond its becoming a tree.

The exhibition is structured around three axes that show the same thing, with some variations: this essential element is the transformation of matter accentuated in death. The whole work of Ramos is a dialogue with a distant past that tells us about our contemporaneity. There is a mysticism in the work that is worth discovering, and for this, the observer must stop, observe, dialogue with the work. Therefore a disinterested gaze has to be discarded within this aesthetic experience.

Self is the third solo show by the artist and the first to include works of the last four years. A complex exhibition, rich in universal references, that plastically interrogates something that in principle is a mystery, but that ends up being a constant in our existence: death as a process of transformation of matter and not as an ultimate goal. In SELF the artist, masterfully materializes how what has been essential to humanity throughout history continues to be of current concern. For this reason, his work is part of what I have called Little History of Animality.

Ricardo Arcos Palma / Curator