Alberto Baraya, B.ogotá, 1968
Plastic artist, photographer, painter, traveler and researcher, his work on the herbarium of artificial plants, 2002-2022, has been a critical proposal of the scientific model as a unique category of knowledge. Baraya's artistic practice is based on the model of the naturalist expeditions of the 19th century, in which, traveling through different ecosystems, he manages to describe the geographies of the daily behavior of residents, foreigners, and tourists that he encounters in his path. His plastic work deals with questions about cultural identity, notions of fiction versus reality, as well as, in a very particular way, the idea of originality, copying, and falsification. All these issues come together in a particular way in your projectHerbarium of Artificial Plants/ Herbarium of Artificial Plants, 2002-2022, an ironic project that tries to reconstruct the identity of the relationships between nature and man, through the "studies" of false botany, based mostly on "made in Plants". silk from China.He has led the field of Fake Plant Expeditions in Venice, New Zealand, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Tijuana… collecting taxa for the herbarium.
His Herbarium of Artificial Plants has also been a proposal to question the scientific paradigm and still colonial (not yet postcolonial) societies. It is also a reflection on the daily aesthetic acts of decoration and the complex relationships with Nature. As an artist-traveler with his expeditions, he questions the world of physical anthropology and its controversial interpretations. From these experiences a series of photographs have been obtained in the manner of classical ethnographic records. These images offer a recomposition of the hierarchical roles of the eternal encounter between cultures (Approximate anthropometries). Since 2008 he works inComparative Landscape Studies, an approach through painting to artificial territories that configure a visual metaphor about the life and violence of man through his encounters with animals, cars and landscapes.
Fine arts artist, traveler and researcher, his work has been a questioning proposal of the scientific paradigm, the defense of art as a form of knowledge, and at the same time a reflection on the aesthetic acts of daily life. Baraya's artistic practice is based on the model of the naturalist expeditions of the 19th century, in which, traveling through different ecosystems, he manages to describe the geographies of the daily behavior of residents, foreigners, and tourists that he encounters on his path. His plastic work deals with questions about cultural identity, notions of fiction versus reality, as well as, in a very particular way, the idea of originality, copying, and falsification. All these issues converge in a particular way at his projectHerbarium of Artificial Plants, (Herbarium of Artificial Plants) 2002-2022, an ironic project trying to reconstruct the identity of relationships between nature and men, through the "studies" of fake botany, based most on "made in China" silkplants. He has led the field of Fake plants Expeditions in Venice, New Zealand, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Madrid, Morocco or Tijuana… gathering taxa for the herbarium.
The Herbarium of Artificial Plants, has also been a proposal to question the scientific paradigm and the still colonial societies (not yet post-colonial). It is also a reflection on the daily aesthetic acts of decoration and the complex relationships with Nature. As an artist-traveler with his expeditions he has turned the world of physical anthropology and its controversial interpretations upside down. From these experiences a series of photographs have been obtained in the manner of the classic ethnographic records. These images offer a recomposition of the hierarchical roles of the eternal encounter between cultures (Approximative Anthropometries). Since 2008 he has been working onComparative Landscape Studies, an approach through painting to artificial territories that configures a visual metaphor about the life and violence of man through his encounters with animals, cars and landscapes.