Dezeen Magazine

Anish Kapoor explores "urgent times" with Destierro installation

Anish Kapoor has continued to explore the power of pigment by transforming a room into a bright red landscape based on the unseen borders that separate the modern world.

The installation, titled Destierro, is on show at the Parque de la Memoria in Argentina – marking the first time that the British artist has put on a solo exhibition in the country.

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

The Parque de la Memoria, also known simply as Remembrance Park, was created as a memorial to the victims of the military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

Made up of three installations, the exhibition, also titled Destierro, explores the displacement of civilians during this period of time, as well as a type of "new geography" brought about by situations such as the refugee crisis. The title of the exhibition translates to "unearth".

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

"Destierro can be seen as one of the major global dramas of our time," said the curator, Marcello Dantas. "This exhibition was reborn in light of our urgent times."

"The real borders of today's world are no longer the ones that separate nations, as some leaders would have you see, but the borders that separate those that have some bit of ground to stand on and those that have none."

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

The title work was designed specifically for the main hall in the Parque de la Memoria, and sees over 100 tonnes of earth spread across the floor.

The earth has been sprayed with a bright red pigment – one of Kapoor's favourite shades – and appears to have been moved around by a tractor that has been painted in blue.

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

This displacement of earth, which viewers are not permitted to touch or walk on, is intended to represent the displacement of people around the world.

An "invisible work", titled Anxiety, is a sound installation in an empty room that explores the notions of presence and perception.

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

Here, an empty room has been fitted with an infrasound device that emits sound waves inaudible to the human ear.

"Although imperceptible, [the infrasound] triggers a feeling of anxiety similar to that which all the victims remembered on the Monument of the Parque de la Memoria," said Dantas.

"It is an invisible work that produces a feeling in people that connects with collective memory of loss, departure, invisibility and disappearance."

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

The third installation, Imagine Blue, is situated in a room that has been illuminated in bright red lights, and features a seemingly black pile of earth in its middle.

However, the red light eventually turns white – revealing to the viewer that the dirt is actually blue, not black.

Destierro installation by Anish Kapoor

Kapoor – who was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 1991, and ranked as the most popular artist in the inaugural Dezeen Hot List – has been very vocal about recent political events.

Earlier this year, he formed a coalition called Hands Off Our Revolution with over 200 creatives, which will stage contemporary art exhibitions to confront right-wing populism.

The Indian-born British artist also obtained exclusive rights to the world's blackest black pigment, making him the only person allowed to paint using the colour.

Following the realisation, British artist Stuart Semple created the "world's pinkest pink" pigment. Semple has made the pigment available to all artists bar Kapoor – who is banned from using the colour in his work.

Destierro is on show at the Parque de la Memoria until 27 August 2017.