Alexander Apostol: Think Blue

Arratia, Beer is pleased to present Alexander Apóstol’s first solo show in Germany. Comprised by a photographic series and two videos the exhibition highlights Apóstol’s concern with 50’s and 60’s monumental architecture and the collapse of modernist utopias in Latin America.

Shot in Caracas, Venezuela both videos, Avenida Libertador (a gritty black and white video that features as protagonists the transsexual prostitutes that inhabit the capital’s mega-avenue) and Yamaikaleter (in which community leaders pro and con the Chavez government appear reading the Jamaica Letter, Simon Bolivar’s 1815 political manifesto), zero in the dreams of progress that swept the country during the 50’s and the failed promises of political messianism.

Included also in the exhibition is Think Blue, Apostol’s series of digitally manipulated photographs. The series focus on the intricate relationship between the construction of the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the architect Richard Neutra's original plans for the Elysian Park Heights housing complex and the destruction of the Ravine, a community of Mexican immigrant workers. Here Apóstol re-contextualizes images of the modernist stadium and brings to the forefront the ideological failings of the past and the socio-political realities of the present.

Alexander Apóstol (born in Barquisimeto Venezuela) lives and works Madrid, Spain. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions such as the XXV Sao Paulo Biennial, the VIII Istanbul Biennial, and the Prague Biennial 1; and in institutions such as Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; El Museo del Barrio, NY; MUSAC, Spain; and Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg.

Alexander Apostol
Think Blue