To begin with, it is essential to describe the place where the artistic work Coraza* was exhibited; The Project’s hall of the Universidad de Los Andes, a white cube of approximately 35 m2 and 2.40, As a welcoming feature it presents a column (almost vertebral) that interrupts and invites the observer to move throughout the room. The work Coraza consisted of a truck tire made on a 1:1 scale in ceramic that simulated an ordinary tire surrounding -hugging- the column previously mentioned. Then, as a horizon line on the walls of the white cube, the labels that are inscribed in the generic tires were shown.

Coraza is a work that cannot be defined solely from the sculptural perspective. It claims without any pretension a further reading of the relationship between the artistic object and the exhibition space. The hall’s architecture itself served to give a conceptual twist to Yepez’ work. The simulation presented in prior works (Llantas, Varillas, and Bombas) is almost relegated by the doubt about how the object has been installed in the space. In fact, this deception has been taken into a new level, and now it is not just present in the viewer’s eye, but in their minds too. The contemplation is interrupted by the doubt exposed by the artist and the only way out is to look closely at the materiality of the object itself. Thusly, the encounter between the observer and the object takes place in a sensorium manner since Yepez’ intention is to reconnect and activate each of our senses. This, with the aim of putting them under alertness to consequently allowing us to go back into that essential act of contemplation.

*Coraza was presented during a solo exhibition in the Project’s hall of the Universidad de Los Andes in 2019.



Jaime Martinez
Director FORO.SPACE