Armando Andrade Tudela

‘I believe that a door handle moving slowly (object) creates a stronger impression than the projection of the person who sets it in motion (subject).’

— Fernand Léger (1)

Part One of Salle de Répétition will consist of three films, presented as relatively modest sized projections, and shown simultaneously. The subjects of the films are: Marcahuasi, the famous rock forest on a mountain plateau in Peru (Marcahuasi 2009); sun rays and the geometry of refracted lens flare (Untitled Film #1 2006-7); and a music rehearsal space in the suburbs of Saint-Étienne, built and run by a nonprofit association for over 20 years (Salle de Répétition 2010).  Shot on 16mm in simple observational mode, and mostly edited in camera, Andrade’s films aspire to a condition of transparency.  “Ideally I try to think of filming and subsequently viewing what has been filmed as parts of a same timescale, a sort of experience of continuity and transparency. The aim I suppose is to transcribe the actuality of being ‘there’ to the viewer”. (2)

While these films explore examples of social space  – ethnographic, architectural, ritual, communal – they are ambivalent about any notion of objectivity. With the camera circling its subject, moving from long shots to close ups, from interior to exterior, darkness to light, there is a sense that these films draw in part for their inspiration on the legacy of experimental film making, in particular elements of abstraction in varying degrees coming to the fore and the perception of space shifting into experience.

Armando Andrade Tudela (1975, Lima) resides in both Berlin and Saint-Étienne. He studied at the Universidad Pontificia in Lima, the Royal College of Art in London and the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. His work has been presented in Barcelona (MACBA), Dijon (Frac Bourgogne), Berlin (DAAD), Birmingham (Ikon Gallery), Frankfurt (FKV), and Basel (Kunsthalle Basel).  He has also participated in major group exhibitions in Lima, Warsaw, Vienna, New York, the Shanghai and Sao Paulo Biennials.

Salle de Répétition is the artist’s third exhibition at the gallery. Part Two will run 8 October – 20 November, in which the artist will present a series of new sculptures alongside new wall-based works.

(1) Hans Richter New Living, Andres Janser and Arthur Rüegg.
(2) Interview with Ariane Beyn, to be published in Andrade’s forthcoming monograph, Efectiviwonder.