The Chicago Artists Coalition is pleased to present, In the Absence of a Body, a solo exhibition by BOLT Resident Artist, Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera.

“A Guest plus a Host is a Ghost.”
– Marcel Duchamp

Diaz-Perera will stage his own absence by occupying a liminal space between gallery walls during the three-week duration of his solo exhibition. While living inside the 2.5-foot-wide corridor, Diaz-Perera will do only the most essential actions of his quotidian life: sleep, eat, and personal hygiene. He will not communicate with anyone on the other side of the walls. While he will be able to observe the audience, Diaz-Perera will remain invisible to them. Until the close of the exhibition, Diaz-Perera will attempt to embrace the act of becoming a Ghost of himself, an absence, nothing.

Diaz-Perera’s childhood in Cuba was defined by absences, both material and familial. Nearly all of his family left Cuba, including his father. He was born in 1991, at the beginning of what is called in Cuba, “The Special Period,” an extended period of economic crisis primarily due to the dissolution of the assistance that Cuba received from the former Soviet Union. This period extended from 1989 until the end of the 1990’s, though the effects still remain today, compounded by a situation of extreme geographical, political, and economic isolation. In December 2014, President Obama announced the normalization of the relationship between the United States and Cuba, marking another turning point in this unfolding story of certainty/uncertainty and absence/presence.

Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera is an emerging artist from Havana, Cuba, based in Chicago, IL.
A conceptual artist, Diaz-Perera works across the mediums of video, photography, painting, installation and text; the medium is dictated by the idea or investigation. Through his practice, he seeks to make connections between the personal and the universal points of view, exploring the concept of absence in many different ways, by the process of forcing to contradict himself. Recent exhibitions include a two-person show with collaborator Cara Megan Lewis at Antena Gallery and participation in the Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival at Defibrillator Gallery, both in Chicago. Participation in festivals and exhibitions in Cuba include the International Festival of Video Art in Camaguey, the 10th and 11th Havana Biennials, and a workshop-exhibition in collaboration with Gabriel Orozco in Havana.

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Tags: Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera, BOLT, CAC, Chicago, West Loop