Diego Vivanco´s new exhibition questions the use of flags
Euskara. Kultura. Mundura.
The exhibition If it moves, it´s alive by Basque visual artist Diego Vivanco is on show until December 31 in Buenos Aires at the Immigration Museum, one of the museums of the Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero. The project aims to provoke thought about the use of flags.
The exhibition If it moves, it´s alive by Basque visual artist Diego Vivanco is on show until December 31 in Buenos Aires at the Immigration Museum, one of the museums of the Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero. The project aims to provoke thought about the use of flags.
Vivanco was born in Bilbao in 1988 but has spent much of his life abroad. After earning a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), he moved to Germany, where he obtained postgraduate degrees in Media Art and Time-based art. In his words, "Being born in the Basque Country at the end of the 80s and living abroad for ten years has forced me to face questions about my cultural identity all my life. That could very well be the source of my fascination with the object and symbol of the flag, as an encoded element, as a way of communication".
It is no accident, therefore, that he chose the Immigration Museum, located in the Hotel of the Immigrant, to install this exhibition. The building that has welcomed migrants, exiles and travelers since 1911, now a museum, has a direct relationship with the importance that flags have had for nations throughout history. Vivanco chose this very theme to present as part of the Bitamine Faktoria programme of Internationalization of Basque Contemporary Art. This led him to show his work in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The If it moves, it´s alive project uses video, installation and photography to question the use of flags. The performances based on these formats (in one of the photographs Vivanco shows his body as if it were a flag, for example) present the different functions of the flag, prompting the viewer to ask questions about cultural identity.