Iván Navarro

Diccionario

It is a book with a set of mirrors embedded within its pages. The play of mirrors creates an optical illusion of depth carved into the pages, superimposed with two painted words: open and closed. The visual experience of this work illuminates the metaphor for the infinite possibilities of language to create connections and interpretations between words. It also refers to the double life that a book can have when it is either closed or open, that is, the book as a container of myriad concepts and a material object at the same time.

Enciclopedia ilustrada

It is a book with a set of mirrors embedded within its pages. The mirror game creates an optical illusion of depth carved into the pages, with the word end, etched on the mirror. The work seeks to question the classic structure of a book with a linear sequence that supposes an “end.” In this case, the visual experience of the work opens the possibilities for this to be a book “without end”, or of an indeterminate continuity that contradicts the word end.

Iván Navarro was born in Santiago, Chile, where he grew up during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Navarro’s ex- periences under the regime continue to fuel his examination of electric energy and sound as symbols and tools of power. Navarro’s unique and captivating use of light, music and sculptures transform the exhibition space by means of visual interplay. He also collaborates with Courtney Smith in the per- formance/ sculpture based project Konantü (www.konantu.org), and since 2005 releases recordings of sound works under his music label Hueso Records (www.hueso-records. com). Navarro represented Chile at the 53rd Venice Biennale. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Iván Navarro lives and works in New York. In 2009, he represented Chile at the 53rd Venice Biennale. In recent years he has ex- hibited worldwide: Akron Art Museum, Ohio (2024), This Land is Your Land, Momentary at Crystal Bridges Museum, USA (2019), This Land is Your Land, Busan Museum, Korea; Age of Terror, Imperial War Museum, London (2018); Light and Space, Guggenheim Bil- bao, Spain (2017); Art Basel Parcours, Swit- zerland; Yinchuan Biennial, China (2016); Under the Same Sun, South London Gallery (2016) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Muse- um, New York (2014); Storylines, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015); Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London, and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2013

- 2016). His work can be found in numerous international collections including at the Sol- omon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gar- den (Washington, D.C.) and the Fonds Na- tional d’Art Contemporain (Paris). His work The Ladder was selected for a permanent installation in San Francisco in spring 2020. In 2021, his work was the subject of a retro- spective at Le Centquatre and a new instal- lation was unveiled in Miami’s Design District during the annual Art Basel Miami Beach fair. His installation This Land Is Your Land has been on display since June 2022 in the Art Omi Sculpture Park (Ghent, New York State). In 2005 his monumental installation Cadran Solaire will be inaugurated at Grand Paris Express (Paris, France) in collaboration with architect Dominique Perrault. He is currently working on a research and publication proj- ect of underground music from Latin Amer- ica in collaboration with Hueso Records and Institute For Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) in New York.