Danilo Dueñas Essay by Jens Hoffmann

For Colombian artist Danilo Dueñas, abandoned spaces, materials, and with them, invisible histories, become fodder for something new. Scraps of wood, sheaths of discarded metal, disused cupboards, doors that have left their hinges - all of these things and more become ready material for his transformative installations. It is not simply that Dueñas seeks to recycle materials, though a consciousness about our collective use and misuse of worldly resources has certainly had an impact on his artistic practice. Rather, Dueñas seems drawn to these objects as guiding forces, almost active players in his creative process.
A piece of wood might break, but then that raw edge may lead the artist in a different direction; a mound of crumpled metal may collapse, but only so that it may take the shape it was meant to take. His process, by definition, is experimental: he works directly with materials not knowing what the outcome might be. Under his careful tutelage, however, these resurrected objects enact a delicate choreography, engaging balance and motion, geometry and light. In some ways, his manipulation of objects and environments seems quasi-magical, his installations brimming with an uncanny internal order.