Doris Salcedo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Doris Salcedo
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Salcedo in 2015
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| Born | 1958 (age 66–67) |
| Education | Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (BA) New York University (MFA) |
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Notable work
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Shibboleth (2007) Fragmentos (2018) |
| Movement | Art as Activism |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (1995) The Ordway Prize, from the Penny McCall Foundation (2005) Commission from Tate Modern, London (2007) Velázquez Visual Arts Prize (2010) Hiroshima Art Prize (2014) |
Doris Salcedo (born in 1958) is a famous Colombian artist. She creates amazing sculptures and art installations. Her art is inspired by her life in Colombia. She often uses everyday things like furniture, clothes, concrete, and even rose petals.
Doris Salcedo's art helps people think about pain, sadness, and loss. It creates a space for people to remember and heal together. Her own family has experienced loss, as some members disappeared in Colombia's past political troubles. Her work often explores the difficult feeling when someone vanishes, leaving an empty space that is hard to mourn. Doris Salcedo lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia.
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Early Life and Education
Doris Salcedo was born in 1958 in Bogotá, Colombia. She studied art at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1980. After that, she traveled to New York City. There, she completed her Master of Fine Arts degree at New York University in 1984. She then returned to Bogotá. She taught art at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Art as a Way to Remember
Salcedo's art often explores themes of memory and forgetting. She creates installations that make you think about the past. For example, in her pieces like Unland: The Orphan's Tunic (1997) and the La Casa Viuda series (early 1990s), she uses regular household items. She takes things like chairs and tables and turns them into memorials. These memorials honor the people who suffered in the Civil War in Colombia.
A writer named Andreas Huyssen wrote about Salcedo's work. He called her art "Memory Sculpture." He described Unland: The Orphan's Tunic as a simple table that becomes haunting when you look closely. It's made from two broken tables joined together. A whitish fabric, like an orphan's tunic, covers them. If you look even closer, you can see hundreds of tiny human hairs used as thread. Huyssen said the table is like a body. The tunic is like skin. Together, they represent a community that has lost many people. Salcedo's Unland helps people around the world understand Colombia's past.
Doris Salcedo uses old objects that hold a lot of history. Through her art, she shows how the past and present are connected. She tries to "repair" what feels incomplete. Her art helps us remember difficult times.
Powerful Art Installations
Salcedo's art often involves large installations. She uses art galleries or unusual places to create works that speak about history and politics.
Noviembre 6 y 7 (2002)
Noviembre 6 y 7 (2002) is a work that remembers a sad event. On November 6 and 7, 1985, the Supreme Court in Bogotá was violently taken over. Salcedo placed her art in the new Palace of Justice. For 53 hours (the same time the original event lasted), she slowly lowered wooden chairs. She hung them from the roof against the building's front. Salcedo called this "an act of memory." She wanted to bring attention back to a place that people might have forgotten.
Istanbul Biennial Installation (2003)
In 2003, she created an installation for the 8th Istanbul Biennial. She stacked 1,500 wooden chairs very carefully. They filled the space between two buildings on a regular street.
Abyss (2005)
At the Castello di Rivoli in 2005, Salcedo changed one of the main rooms. She extended the brick ceiling of the gallery. This subtle change, called Abyss, made people think about being trapped or buried.
Shibboleth (2007)
In 2007, Salcedo created Shibboleth for the Tate Modern gallery in London. It was a huge crack, 167 meters long, running across the floor. Salcedo explained that the crack shows "borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred." It represents how people from the "Third World" might feel when they come to Europe. Her installation showed feelings of being left out or different.
Exhibitions Around the World
Doris Salcedo's art has been shown in many important exhibitions globally. Some of these include:
- Carnegie International (1995)
- São Paulo Biennial (1998)
- Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art (1999)
- Documenta XI, Kassel (2002)
- Istanbul Biennial (2003)
- 'NeoHooDoo', PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York (2008)
- 'The New Décor', Hayward Gallery, London (2010)
She has also had many solo exhibitions, where only her work is shown. These include:
- The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1998)
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999 and 2005)
- Tate Britain, London (1999)
- Camden Arts Centre, London (2001)
- White Cube, London (2004)
- Tate Modern, London (2007)
- The 80's: A Topology (2007)
- Inhotim, Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Belo Horizonte (2008)
From 2010 to 2013, her installation “plegaria Muda” traveled to museums in Europe and South America. It was also shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2015), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2015), and Harvard Art Museums (2016).
Awards and Recognition
Doris Salcedo has received many important awards for her art:
- 1995 – Guggenheim Fellowship
- 2005 – The Ordway Prize
- 2010 – Velázquez Visual Arts Prize
- 2014 – Hiroshima Art Prize
- 2016 – Inaugural Nasher Prize for Sculpture
- 2017 – Rolf Schock Prizes in Visual Arts
- 2019 – Nomura Art Award
Her Art's Focus
Doris Salcedo's main focus has always been on political violence. She believes that "violence defines the evils of our society." She often visits places where difficult events have happened. She researches how different forms of violence affect people and communities. Her art helps us understand these complex issues.
See also
In Spanish: Doris Salcedo para niños
- Andreas Huyssen
- Dario Robleto
