VIENNA.- Conceived especially for the Secession, Gabriel Sierra’s installation grows out of his philosophical reflections on space and time. He is concerned with the idea of the present time and the moment when the visitor—as spectator—enters the gallery to see the show. As Sierra developed this most recent installation, he also worked closely with the concrete site, the downstairs galleries at the Secession.

The title Sierra has chosen for his show, The first impressions of the year 2018 (During the early days of the year 2017), outlines the framework of the exhibition as an “abstract situation” and locus of the imagination. Entering the gallery, the visitors are summoned to imagine stepping into the future, though the scene remains embedded in the present of the year 2017. On the visual level, the construction is sustained by the special light direction. The present is brightly illuminated and clearly visible; the exhibition, by contrast, is immersed in relative darkness: only the light entering from outside limns the contours of the space and the mysterious fixtures that have been installed in it. The longer the visitors linger in the rooms and the more their eyes adapt to the twilight, the more distinctly the elements of the exhibition emerge into view.

They could be read as “Dioramas of the future”: giant constructions whose capricious lack of any recognizable function initially makes them seem enigmatic. To the artist’s mind, they are abstract elements of a future exhibition awaiting to be taken into service in their designated function as display. Taking up the entire length of the walls, they look like oversized boxes whose dimensions and height are custom-tailored to the architecture of the gallery. At first it seems that they camouflage the building entirely, but closer examination reveals that the elements—suspended 6 inches above the floor—emphasize its architecture and characteristic features, especially the signature ribbed vaulting and the large wall niches. One of the artist’s intentions was to make visitors see the room as it is, so he began by knocking down all drywall structures that had been inserted into the space to expose the gallery’s “skeleton.” Sierra also uncovered the windows of the basement rooms, which are usually concealed. These windows and a single glass door are the only sources of light in the exhibition, producing an atmospheric illumination that changes drastically depending on the amount of daylight entering through the apertures and bathing the rooms in shifting ambiances.

The subjectivity of perception and recollection, the play with visibility and invisibility, the involvement of all the senses, but also a critical engagement with the rules and conventions of the art world: these are constitutive elements of Sierra’s practice, articulated in the exhibition in—sometimes very subtle— interventions that many visitors might overlook were it not for the list of works in the brochure available at the entrance. Some pieces will be experienced solely by visitors who arrive in the gallery at certain times: an Open Window-brand scented candle will be lit only for short periods of time (Untitled [Open Window], 2014–2017)—its fragrance a faint response to the uncovering of the gallery’s otherwise covered windows.

Gabriel Sierra, born in 1975 in San Juan Nepomuceno, Bolívar (Colombia), lives and works in Bogotá.