Bernardo Ortiz

Bernardo Ortiz’s work centers around drawing. For him, the word “drawing” points to a range of actions. On the one hand, there is the physicality of the act of drawing, like dragging a hard lead pencil across a coarsely weaved fabric where line and thread become almost indistinguishable. On the other, he also understands drawing as a metaphor, as a way of understanding an action, where drawing functions as a critical technology that questions an image. Drawing, Bernardo says, “can be critical while being non-discursive. It rests on a kind of stuttering. A fumbling of gesture across the surface. It is critical because, as a technology, it is obsolete. But it breaks apart the apparent transparency and seamlessness of the image.”

During his stay in Chiusure, Bernardo will focus on two words that are closely related and central to the way he works: habit and repetition. In his daily drawing, Bernardo aims to mostly repeat small gestures. He connects this exercise with the context of Chiusure, in particular the Abbey of Monte Olivetto Maggiore and the idea of a rule in early Christianity, founded on repetition. This connection will inform his work, which might comprise descriptions of colors, drawings of structures, repetition of words, all of which might fold into fabricated lectures.