Works selected for the 2025 Neo Norte retrospective: a painting by Paula Turmina and a sculpture by Giuseppe Mario Urso
A video installation inside St Pancras New Church, A Room of One’s Own reminds us to take stock of our lockdown experience for good and ill... read more on Salterton Arts Review
In From Displacement to Empowerment, Giuseppe Mario Urso presents Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and The Statue of Liberty as mirror images. Each wears the clothes and colours of the other and their bases connect via a fragile transparent division.
These two iconic symbols are laden with meaning. For the mothers of the disappeared in Mexico, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe envelops the unbearable anguish of their loss and extends comfort. The Statue of Liberty has become the symbol of emigration, simultaneously conveying pain for the lost home country and hope for a better life in the new one.
In removing these icons from their traditional pedestals, Urso allows “these two great ladies who stand far apart, yet who share similar values and hopes” to converse with the viewer in a new way. He presents them as “neighbours not strangers, standing in perfect composure, mirroring one another”. He reflects: [This] "upside-down installation… defying gravity, encourages us to come close, reflect, and observe reality with fresh eyes”.
For Giuseppe, their very proximity raises an intimate question: "Are we different or are we the same?"
(Roberta Bacic Conflict Textiles)
Photo by Clem McCartney
From Displacement to Empowerment
11 June 2024 until 7 September 2024
Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Copyright © GM Urso 2022