Gabriel Sierra's The First Impressions of 2018: A Site-Specific Exhibition at Secession

This exhibition features an installation by Gabriel Sierra exploring perceptions of the future within the present. The artist uses the gallery space itself as a container for future imagination, with specially designed structures and carefully managed light to create a unique phenomenological experience.

Gabriel Sierra's installation for the Secession, titled 'The First Impressions of the Year 2018 (During the early days of the year 2017)', is conceived as an abstract situation exploring the perception of the future in the present moment. The exhibition spaces and their boundaries serve as a metaphorical container for future imaginings during the exhibition's duration. The work is presented as a fictional event, incorporating site-specific pieces that echo the physical characteristics of the space and incoming light to generate a distinct atmosphere. The installation confronts the visitor with a phenomenological experience of space and time, all while the present of 2017 unfolds outside the exhibition walls. Sierra's practice delves into the subjectivity of perception and memory, playing with visibility and invisibility, and critically engaging with the conventions of the art world. For this exhibition, the artist draws on his philosophical reflections on space and time, focusing on the present moment of visitor entry. He meticulously integrates the specific location – the basement exhibition rooms of the Secession – into the development of the installation. The title frames the exhibition as an 'abstract situation' and a space for imagination, encouraging visitors to project themselves into the future while remaining embedded in the present of 2017. This is visually reinforced by a special lighting design: while the present is brightly illuminated, the exhibition space is kept in relative darkness, with only external light revealing the contours of the space and its mysterious built-in elements. As eyes adjust to the twilight, exhibition elements become clearer. The large built-in elements, described as 'dioramas of the future,' initially pose a riddle with their apparent lack of function. Sierra considers them abstract components of a future exhibition awaiting their true purpose. These structures span the walls, resembling oversized boxes whose size and height relate to the room's architecture, seemingly obscuring it at first. However, upon closer inspection, these elements, hovering 15 cm above the floor, highlight the space and its features, such as the characteristic ribbed vaulting and large wall niches. A key objective was to showcase the space as it is: all subsequently built walls were removed, and the 'skeleton' of the exhibition room was exposed, including previously concealed windows in the basement rooms, which, along with a glass door, serve as the sole light sources, dynamically changing the atmosphere with the intensity of daylight.

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