The inspiration for the name of the gallery has to do with the markets of the Arab countries where the souk is a place of exchange between knowledge and culture. With the same spirit, the space created in 2019 by Pía Susaeta and Gustavo Moraes focuses its work on disseminating the work of Uruguayan and foreign artists residing in Uruguay exclusively, expanding its work with permanent training by Fernando López Lage in different seminars, added to an interesting library for public use with books on artists and art, philosophy, contemporary thought and artist catalogues. Its originality is not only that it contains a living specimen of a palm tree inside the room, but also that the artists represented make up an important nucleus of contemporary Uruguayans.
It is oriented in a marked bias to make visible the work of women artists that include a reflection on the contemporary world, and in April Zoco presents the work of three artists who work on the problem of waste materials and the pollution that we generate by adding collection, recycling and collaboration activities with neighborhood groups.
Valentina Cardellino (Montevideo, 1985), winner of the Second Prize at the 60th Gladys Famado National Visual Arts Award in 2022, exhibits “Scene in the open field”, a detailed, meticulously drawn count of all the objects found that arrive by action of the river to an area of 25 square meters, in the bay of the Capurro neighborhood in Montevideo. An intimate work of linear filigree that manages to overcome a degraded space with beauty.
Cecilia Mattos (Montevideo, 1958), with a long career and a resident of the Las Flores de Maldonado resort, explores the marginal edges of the sea. Waste, bags, toys and a lot of plastic have been collected since 2020 to later create works that rely on using them in embroidered pieces, installations and videos. She calls her proposal “The Great Karma” because she feels compelled to point out the unsustainable situation of wear and tear that human intervention carelessly operates in seas and rivers.
Adriana Rostovsky (Montevideo, 1976) focuses on conservation, relating matter and memory, space and time as an active witness. Her work “Binomio” was carried out in collaboration with the Fundación Lagunas Costeras from the department of Rocha and the neighborhood community, as well as with residents and businesses from the department of Maldonado. With cleaned and cut plastic bottles, he created a plastic sphere 1.30 m in diameter that moves in different settings, public and private, highlighting the will to reintroduce a polluting element in the sphere of art, transforming its essence and valuing its value. plasticity.
by Pilar Altilio
