Germán Bobe

WORKS

Dreaming in the Gardens of Love

Video Data Bank is pleased to present the VDB TV program Germán Bobe: Dreaming in the Gardens of Love, in which we highlight selections from the Chilean-born artist's early video works. These pieces express romantic exuberance painted in the electric vibrancy of cathode rays as well as longing restraint illuminated in soft sepia-tones and black and white chiaroscuro. The videos are often simultaneously joyfully campy and intensely serious. Bobe mixes religious iconography and mythological imagery with queer sensibilities and classic cinema aesthetics to create beautiful and moving artworks.

PACEMAKER

Bolero, Italian tango, mambo, chachachá and rock and roll were some of the styles with which he built a musical identity that had no equal or descendants.

THE TEACHER

A caricature of a professor teaching English to non-native speakers. Her mannerisms, her accent, the content of her speech—all are absurd, in the tradition of an Ionesco character.

CHATITO

An allegory of Capitalism in Modern and Postmodern Latin America. The main scenes take place in a farm market where its merchants, street vendors, LGBT street artists, clowns, and migrants, struggle to earn a living.

DUBOIS´FANTASY

"Dubois´ Fantasy", the documentary archive gives way to the cinematographic representation of the biography of the diva.

7_M_CL

Digital interactive work, including video, 3D animation, pixel art, music, collage, and photomanipulation.

WORKS

Chilean-born artist, working in mixed media—video, film, photography, performance, painting, collage, sound and digital.Beginning in 2019 his artistic expression has focused on electronic, sound, and image technology in emerging media.

He spotlights ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as the human body and gender, in particular, the gender identity and gender expression of women, and LGBTQ+ people. Other topics present in his work are sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, politics and Western colonialism.

One of his first videos is “The Teacher”, (La profesora), a work that is part of the permanent collection of the MoMA of NY.

Bobe has lived and studied in Libya, Italy, the Netherlands, the USA, and Argentina; countries that deeply influenced his artistic career. He currently lives and works in Santiago, Chile.

He has been featured on such shows and institutions as:

The Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, USA
The London Festival of Moving Images; London, United Kingdom
The New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center; New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art – MOMA; New York, USA
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Queen Sofía National Museum Art Center); Madrid, Spain
Cannes Film Festival; Cannes, France
Cineteca Madrid; Madrid, Spain

For purchase of video for home or public viewing, please contact Video Data Bank in the link listed below:

https://www.vdb.org/artists/german-bobe

BIO