September 6-8, 2019 in DKU Water Pavilion
Edén Barrena is a Spanish visual artist based in Shanghai who has exhibited her work internationally. Join her in a drawing workshop aimed at integrating creative practice to your research profile. The workshop will include tips on accessing the archive, interpreting your research into a visual medium, and critique from an experienced artist.
September 6
11:00 – 12:00 & 13:00 – 15:00
The guest artist will present her work ~ 1 hour (11:00 – 12:00). The students will undertake a two- hours drawing session. This first approach to drawing will be a basic exercise to train the eye, and to learn some strategies to process what we see and how to translate it to our own visual language ~ 2 hours (13:00 – 15:00).
September 7
11:00 – 12:00 & 13:00 – 15:00
The students will be introduced to the work of four contemporary artists who work with drawing ~ 1 hour (11:00 – 12:00). The students will be given a subject to work with for a personal drawing project under the guidance of the guest artist ~ 2 hours (13:00 – 15:00). * Ideally, this session will take place in the morning, so the students can have the rest of the day to continue working by themselves if desired.
September 8
10:00 – 12:00 & 13:30 – 15:00
The students will work on their personal projects under the guidance of the guest artist ~ 2 hours (10:00 – 12:00). The students will display their works and present it to their colleagues for discussion ~ 1.5 hours (13:30 – 15:00).
Artist Statement
Edén is interested in the relationship between the self and the other, and in the estrangement and conflicts generated by this encounter. She uses print, drawing, animation and found imagery in order to collect these confrontations and transmit the amazement to the viewer. By unfolding different mechanisms, her work reflects on the edges of subjectivity, travel, discovery and representation of the unknown through the exercise of drawing. She has certain fascination for humble, portable and intimate materials and formats, which allows her to easily engage with the audience. Travelling is a key element of her creative practice, since it positions her in the roles of the outsider and the other, experimenting first-hand the displacement of the foreigner.
Edén Barrena has participated in more than thirty group shows and art fairs around the world, and displayed her work individually on six occasions. She was a recipient of the Villiers Travel Award (2014) and the artist-in-residence fellowships from the Fundación Antonio Gala (Córdoba, ES, 2015-16) and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Shanghai, CN, 2017). In 2018, Edén was invited by Bananafish Books, Shanghai, to publish her artist book The Promise of Blooming, which was reedited by the Pearl Art Museum of Shanghai at the end of the same year.
