Saturday 9 November 2024
Opening 3pm
Concert 7pm
Saeztti (Danny EM), Peru / Birthed, Berlin
Cosmo pop-up: food & drinks
Av. Pedro de Osma 409, Barranco
Lima, Peru
Free admission
Opening hours
Wednesday – Saturday
3pm – 8pm
proyectoamil
Lima
proyectoamil is pleased to present Heliotropism, a solo exhibition by the German artist and musician Valentín Masé. This event marks the first time Masé exhibits his work in Latin America.
In Heliotropism, Valentin Masé creates a world where landscapes and figures echo an encounter between the natural and the artificial, drawing us into familiar yet estranged environments. Flowers that grow from or mirror themselves, landscapes that exist only as representations, like postcards, and the artist as a fictional character, stand as symbols of a natural world reimagined, distanced, and manipulated for human consumption. They evoke a paradoxical urge: the longing to connect with the organic while immersing oneself in simulations devoid of true consequences. Here, nature is not a living ecosystem but an almost surreal theatrical construct, engineered to incite feelings in its viewers.
The work questions the nature of experience, investigating how today’s commodities alienate “authentic” emotional responses. Each object displayed, each artificial scene, echoes and abandons one’s familiarity, becoming a sterile sense of self—a state of passive engagement. Through immersive soundscapes and evocative spaces, the works suggest that these commodified experiences are less about transformation than compensation—a way to address an inner void while sidestepping introspection.
Within these digital worlds, Masé introduces figures that seem both in harmony and at odds with their surroundings, almost as if they’ve been “bespelled.” These figures, subtly aware of their placement in an unnatural environment, embody sensations of confusion, alienation, and sometimes even pain, inviting us to ponder the depth that may (or may not) lie beneath the seemingly flat and kitsch surfaces. The artist appears under layers of disguise, further questioning the boundaries between real and synthetic identities. Masé’s embodied presence within these images blurs the line between creator and subject, challenging viewers to consider their roles as spectators in this carefully constructed world.
In his exploration of energies and effects untethered from causality, Masé gestures toward something deeply counterintuitive—an “antithesis” to the conventional concept of energy. Here, the energy is not a consequence but an entity that exists solely to provoke, mirroring how these digital spaces and figures serve to generate a response. Elements like immaterial sunlight and a speculative approach to sound bridge the divide between fiction and reality, creating friction that, in Masé’s vision, becomes a potential in itself.
Through the interplay of kitsch, irritation, and uncanny beauty, Heliotropism unsettles and captivates, urging viewers to contemplate the complexities of representation and the allure of fabricated nature. Masé’s landscapes become spaces where functional and fictional realities coexist in perpetual tension, revealing a world with a mysterious “behind”—a seductive and confounding dimension that questions our assumptions about reality, artificiality, and the human experience.
VALENTIN MASÉ lives and works in Berlin. His multidisciplinary practice encompasses sound and music, processed and ready-made objects, and visual works, often amalgamated into installations. He has performed and exhibited across Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Georgia, Norway, Belgium, and the United States.
BIRTHED (Gaia Heichal) is a Berlin-based artist who unveils the fragility within the harsher edges of music. He takes influence from genres such as drone metal and harsh noise and reconfigures them towards a dense and maximalist yet introspective form of ambiance.
SAEZTTI (Danny EM) is one of the pioneering DJs and producers of IDM, House, and Techno music in Lima, Peru, with several projects to his name and more than 100 published works. Daniel Martinetti is an activist and promoter of electronic music culture in his country, creating spaces for dissemination throughout his career through parties, radio programs, festivals, and more. Additionally, he promotes and shares technical knowledge about technology for electronic music creation through workshops and demonstration classes. Currently, he directs Discos Aquelarre y Aquelarre, a record label and event organization that serves as a primary platform for showcasing the quality of electronic music from Peru and Latin America.
