Galleries, Miami
Camilo Godoy
Neither One Nor the Other, but a Wound
Dot FiftyoneDot Fiftyone Gallery is proud to present Neither One Nor the Other, but a Wound, an exhibition by New York-based Colombian artist Camilo Godoy. Curated by Angelica Arbelaez, this exhibition showcases a bold exploration of historical and contemporary social divides. Neither One Nor the Other, but a Wound features new work and recent photographs by New York-based artist Camilo Godoy. For his first solo exhibition in Miami, Godoy furthers his research into forms of collective movement and choreography through performance, photography, and sculpture. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a video titled "Renacemos a cada instante" (We are reborn at every moment), which documents a recent performance by Godoy with performers Reginald Thomas Brown, Iliana Penichet-Ramírez, Gabriel Reyes, and Sasha Ono at the New Museum in New York. The work depicts an ensemble of dancers moving through a dense fog in an evocatively lit space. Led by the sound of a cello, the dancers perform choreographies based on improvisation and inspired by mourning practices that celebrate the cycles of life and death. Their bodies move with ease, making gentle gestures that ebb, sink, and fall away. For the presentation at Dot Fiftyone Gallery, the exhibition space will be similarly engulfed in a yellow-orange-hued light, inviting visitors to feel immersed in the work. The exhibition will also include three photographs from Godoy's series, What Did They Actually See? The haunting images depict a lone figure making dramatic poses in near complete darkness. The series reckons with the historical impact of prejudices advanced by Christian missionaries against Black and Indigenous peoples of the Americas during the 17th and 18th centuries. Godoy studied written accounts and anthropological records that described ritual dances performed by native communities near present-day Colombia in a pejorative way. With this series, he photographed himself attempting to imagine what colonizers may have witnessed based on their written descriptions. Godoy's photographic interpretations of these ritualistic acts offer a corrective and regards them with unequivocal reverence. Neither One Nor the Other, but a Wound takes its title from a line in the memoir The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras: "We were a brown people, mestizo. European men had arrived on the continent and violated Indigenous women, and that was our origin: neither Native nor Spanish, but a wound." In this excerpt, Rojas Contreras recounts her family's ancestry as deeply marked by the legacies of violence enacted by European colonizers towards Indigenous communities in Colombia. Godoy similarly reflects upon the repercussions of these histories and continues to create a singular body of work that recognizes the importance of embodied knowledge in tending to these inter-generational wounds. Godoy's residency at the New Museum has provided crucial resources to deepen his engagement with historical texts and to develop performative reconstructions. This environment nurtures a connection between contemporary art and historical education, allowing for critical discussions that challenge viewers to reconsider narratives and their implications for modern identity. Neither One Nor the Other, but a Wound features a mix of photography, sculpture, and video installation. Through these mediums, Godoy addresses social and political divisions, seeking to transform and expand viewers' perspectives on marginalized histories. Camilo Godoy is a multidisciplinary artist whose work investigates politics, history, and collective memory. He has participated in residencies at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Solaris, Movement Research, coleção moraes-barbosa, New Dance Alliance, and Recess. His work has been exhibited in prominent institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Cue Art Foundation, OCD Chinatown, Proxyco Gallery, Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogotá, Moody Center in Houston, UNSW Galleries in Sydney, and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Quito. Godoy has also performed at esteemed venues such as the Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.