Raul Marroquin's Most Dreaded Cantos of Dante's Inferno

We
proudly present 'Raul Marroquin's Most Dreaded Cantos from Dante's
Inferno', a solo exhibition at TORCH gallery. Based on the famous
first part of one of the world's greatest works of Western
literature, Marroquin created works made of different media, from
video to drawings to readymades to his self named 'composites'.
Acknowledged
worldwide for his video art, the Colombian born artist had ideas for
these works since 1966, and continued working on these over the last
fifteen years. Being one of the leading artists of the Fluxus and
conceptual art movement in The Netherlands during the sixties and
seventies, this involvement is unmistakable to this day. The
exhibition shows how Marroquin still knows how to tell a convincing
story with the most subtle artistic means.

When he
grew up in Columbia, his grandmother used the stories from Inferno to
scare Raul and his brother. Since then he has always been fascinated
by this legendary tale, written by Dante in 1543. The story tells the
journey of Dante going through hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet
Virgil. Hell is depicted as nine circles, where in each circle Dante
and Virgil encounter its residents and talk to them about what they
have done and why they are where they are. Inferno is only the first
part of the book Commedia dell'Arte, which as a whole serves as an
allegory for the journey of the soul towards god. In this journey,
Inferno describes the recognition and rejection of sin.

The
story is divided in cantos, like chapters. Every work in this
exhibition represents a different canto, including the one where
Dante and Virgil meet for the first time, their encounter with the
poets in limbo and their conversation with the lovers Paula and
Francesca. Next to each work will be a summary of the particular
canto, linking the work to the story.