Biography

Francisco Navarrete Sitja, born in Santiago (Chile) in 1986. Visual artist, Ba in Fine Arts and MFA from Universidad de Chile where he was also a professor until 2015. He currently works both in Santiago, Chile and Barcelona, Spain. 

He has assisted to various photography, sound art and video art courses at different institutions, as well as workshops, in Chile and abroad, with artists like: Cristina Lucas, Ricardo Cases, Magdalena Correa, Luis González Palma, Antoni Pinet, Derek Holzer, Jorge Gronemeyer, Pedro Meyer, Antoni Pinet, Montserrat Rojas Corradi, Nicolas Wormull, Elde Gelos, Bleda y Rosa, Carsten Stabenow, Helene Binet y Matt Siber, among others. 

He has shown his work at portfolio viewings at the International Photography Festival at Belo-Horizonte (Brazil) and at the International Photography Festival FIFV (Chile). He has been invited to several residencies like the ones at Fundación Bilbao Arte (Spain), Residencia Proyecto Norte (Chile); Festival Internacional de Fotografía Valparaíso (Chile); Festival Internacional de Arte Sonoro TSONAMI (Chile), among others. 

He has shown his work, both in solo and group shows, in Bilbao Arte Fundazioa (España); Festival Internacional de la Imagen (Colombia); Fundación Telefónica (Venezuela/Chile); Casa de las Américas (Cuba); Athens Video Art Festival (Grecia); Parque Cultural de Valparaíso (Chile); Wunderlich Gallery (Australia); Galería Gabriela Mistral (Chile); Festival Internacional de Video Arte Barcelona en CCCB (España); Centro Cultural de España (Chile); Festival Internacional de Videoarte PROYECTOR (España/Portugal/México/Italia); Bienal de Artes Mediales (Chile); Savvy Contemporary (Alemania); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Chile); Factory-Art Gallery (Alemania); Centro Cultural Matucana 100 (Chile); MUDAFEST Festival Videoarte (Portugal); Centro Cultural Palacio la Moneda (Chile); La Petite Mort Gallery (Canadá); Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento (Argentina), Galería Balmaceda Arte Joven en Santiago, Valparaíso, Concepción y Antofagasta (Chile), Galería BECH(Chile), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Chile); Sala de Arte Centro Cultura de España SCL(Chile) and Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (España), among others. 

He is currently working on different projects to develop in three residencies: Residencia de Producción Artística COLBÚN 2016 (Chile) – a project that deals with local memory, an hydroelectric power station and a volcano site in the área- Residencia CASAPOLI 2016 (Chile) –a project that relates the acidification of the Pacific Ocean and ethnic conflicts–; and Residencia OASIS DE NIEBLA (Chile) –an investigation on technical thought and atmospheric fog phenomena in the Atacama desert–, among others.
 
Statement

My artwork reflects upon temporality, contemplation and subjectivity in the image representing the landscape. I feel identified with, in conceptual and formal terms, the margins of the photographic medium, space of conjunction of the still and moving image, the expressive and expansive possibilities of the photographic language and the technical mediation of image reproduction and sound representation devices. I therefore, investigate notions of representation of the territory, the symbolic dimension of geographic elements and power structures that shape the way we perceive our natural habitat through the intertextualities between reality and fiction, materiality and immateriality, natural and artificial, whole and fragment. 

From some time now, the analysis and recording of open spaces has been the centre of my visual narration. The sites chosen are invisible, ritual, ephemeral spaces or are going through a transformation process due to the dialectics of their history and the aesthetic changes of formal elements of their geography or atmospheric conditions. In most cases, these are sensitive spaces that are opposed in rhythm and speed to the codes of psychosocial programming. My interest in visual narrative and ephemeral representation arises as they reveal the different layers superimposed on a landscape. In personal terms, through field exploration, I establish an emotional link with geography that allows me to reflect on the construction of the image of landscape and the gaze.

I use different contemporary photographic media like still photograph and moving image, video animation, travel accounts, found objects, archival footage, film appropriations, interviews, spoken narrative and sound pieces, installation, video and other digital media. Recently, I have added my own methodology and operations from different disciplines and areas of knowledge such as anthropology, climatology, oceanography, geology and others associated with the idea of techno-science. From in-situ fieldwork observation, hiking, visual recording of lighting modulations, collection of found items, recording of sound events, experimentation, post-production and digital editing, I seek to account for the instability in the representation of landscape overlaying my sensitive experience of the natural environment, visual narratives, dissident temporalities and images.

Thus, among the projects that I am developing - future productions based on material obtained during the residences in different locations in Chile: Atacama, Colbún and Coliumo, among others- my interest in experiencing fluctuation in geography, juxtaposing dissimilar elements from local memory, plasticity of certain atmospheric phenomena and stories associated with the effects of technical thought on landscape and gaze become evident.