With his first solo exhibition in Berlin, THE PASSAGE OF AMNESIA, Omar Barquet brings together several new works with autofictional elements, which he stages in a tri-partite room installation through which viewers will circulate. Over the years, Barquet has assembled albums in a journal-like process. Drawing from various image traditions, he collects motifs, which he later uses in creating collages and assemblages. In earlier works, he often created installations impinging on the public space. More recently, he has focused on our private, mental space. The motif of the eye appears in various compositions, frequently closed or referring to the expression “in the eye of the storm.” 

The apparent calm is deceptive, for all around us the storm rages violently. Hurricanes, which throw everything into confusion, erode coastlines, and leave prodigious damages in their wake, likewise shape the work of Omar Barquet, who grew up in Chetumal on the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and today lives in Mexico City. Barquet’s artistic practice is based on a process of collecting and recycling. Flotsam, driftwood, sea-shells, fragments of furniture washed up on the beach — materials carrying the scars of time and use — are characteristic of his work.

Abb.: Omar Barquet: 5th Alchemist (for H.W. Longfellow), 2023. Photo: Chroma