Iván Argote. Chaflierplatz

The exhibition by Iván Argote (b. 1983 in Bogotá, COL) is spinning around the fictional verb ‘chaflear’. It lends its name to "Plaza del Chafleo", Argote’s film about a fictional square that enables people to determine the meaning of this word through their actions. ‘To chaffle’ can mean to sunbathe, kiss or protest, rave, walk slowly, dig or balance: The verb interrogates our symbolic and physical use of public space and the possibilities it offers for encounter and collective action.

With videos, drawings, a large-scale concrete floor piece and a poster campaign, the Colombian artist questions our relationship to the "other" on an intimate or ontological scale, as well as on a global, historical and geopolitical level. For him, humor and affects are subversive tools for criticizing political and social circumstances in a globalized world. His works create places of dialogue.

The exhibition at Dortmunder Kunstverein is the artist's first institutional solo-exhibition in Germany. He lives and works in Paris.