Flatfile » Carlos Salazar-Lermont »

Location: Chicago, IL

Carlos Salazar-Lermont is a Venezuelan artist, curator and arts administrator with focus on performativity and social engaged art. He has a BFA in Sculpture from UNEARTE (2012), and a Dual MA program in Arts Administration & Policy and Modern and Contemporary Art History in the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) with the support of the New Artists Society scholarship. In 2013 he was distinguished with and Honorable Mention in the XVI Jóvenes con FIA Salon and in 2014 with the Salón Jóvenes con FIA 2.0/3 Prize. He also received a Honorable Mention for curating Desafío al Poder, framed in the International Contemporary Art Biennial of Los Andes. His work has been shown in Venezuela, Perú, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Finland.

Artist Statement

Use as few elements as possible. Present clearly defined actions to enhance real or suggested performativity.

Proximity—literal, figurative—increases tension and engagement.

Vulnerability is a strength.

Address Venezuela’s historical circumstances by deconstructing the social, political and economic fabrics.

Show the paradoxes of economic value, through everyday social dynamics.

Subvert the burden of Catholicism’s culture of self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

Reflect on the awareness of our own death, as a path to make sense out of existence.

: Rigor Mortis 100 X 104cms. Caracas,Venezuela. 2015. Based on the performance art series Rigor Mortis. I use a tourniquet to let one of my arms gradually lose color and temperature.

: Vanitas, Caracas, 2016. Visual rendition of the Bible section Ecclesiastes 1:2-4. What is the real worth of life, knowledge and beauty?

: Fisting 115 X 89 cm Caracas, 2013. symbolically subvert the domination system that is implemented through free chicken in my country.

: Ecce Homo Performance Chicago,2013. 4hs. Works almost as an installation. The audience engages with the piece as a finding that suggests diverse potential actions, including burning the artist alive.

: ICHTHYS V: Transubstantiation Breda 2015. Sticking scales on my face. The fish is a Christian symbol. I question the moral models imposed by religion and traditions, embedded in our culture.

: Transubstantiation II 2015. Transubstantiation is the mystical process in which the wine and the bread turn into the blood and the flesh of Christ. I make a “crown of thorns” our of wire hangers.

: Relief. Chicago 2018.I use emergency blankets to make a bowl in my abdomen.I ask the participants to make arepa dough in it by mixing corn flour with water I poured over my body.We eat the arepas.

: ICHTHYS Bunkbed Chicago 2017. I explore religious culture embedded in family values as a result of parenting. I use Catholic symbols and other related to domesticity.

: Mar Picado, Haina, 2009. By giving free sardines cans with instructional performances to the local population, I explored the relevance of art when framed in harsh economic conditions.