MANUFACTORY
11.09.2021

Exhibition of Sebastian Riffo "Manufactura" at the Vyksa Museum of OMK History.
The exhibition includes 4 large-sized paintings, created on the basis of painting and drawing, as well as archaic techniques, in which technique and manual work are fundamental in their expressive content. Items from the collection of the museum of the Vyksa plant OMK - various products of the local manufactory, from decoration to the stove door, demonstrating various methods of processing natural materials, became models for large-sized paintings.

Sebastian Riffo invites the viewer to take a journey in which he took minerals as a starting point, extending his interest from the extraction of precious stones at mines to the processing of natural ore in industrial plants. Riffo raises questions about human exploitation of the Earth, the use of natural resources, the cultural and historical significance of such use, and the benefits that humans derive.

The Vyksa Riffo project continues the artist's long-term research on geological changes and their relationship to human activities, and at the same time is connected with the experience of the artist's residence in the Atacama Desert in Chile, where he studied the rock reliefs of the Tair culture. The subject of his artistic research, human use of natural resources, takes on special significance in Vyksa, an industrial city in which the industrial function and the nature surrounding the city are intertwined and form the basis of life.

Sebastian Riffo
1987
Sebastian Riffo Valdebenito — visual artist. He lives and works in Santiago de Chile. Doctor of Arts, Artistic Practice as Research (PaR), mention in Visual Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), financed with the National Doctoral Scholarship from the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT). Bachelor of Arts, also from the PUC.

After the Maule earthquake of February 27, 2010, he dedicated his artistic research to understanding the telluric conditions of Chile, addressing its imaginary and significant reaches.

His work problematizes the aesthetics of catastrophe, disaster and ruin. His research uses historical archives and memories to understand and reflect on the social and political implications of human coexistence on a planet in constant transformation.
His personal exhibitions stand out: «Acabo de Mundo» (2016) at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) of the University of Chile and «When the earth trembles» (2018) at the Civil Protection Academy of the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior, ONEMI.

His work has been included in publications such as: «Contemporary Art in Chile. Pedagogical Notebook» (2020); «Contemporary Chilean painting: practice and disciplinary displacements» (2015); «Sub 30: Young painting in Chile» (2014).
His work is part of the public collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) of the University of Chile and the National Historical Museum (MHN) of Chile.

In 2017 he was co-curator of the Biennial of Media Arts BAM2017-Temblor, whose objective sought to reflect on the earthquake and its link with contemporary artistic practices.

Likewise, since 2009 he has participated in different art residencies, both in Chile and abroad.