Patricia Esquivias (Venezuela, 1979) creates her work from memories, anecdotes and conversations. In her video works, she narrates by herself while presenting documents, photos and objects in front of a steadily installed camera, avoiding any post-processing. In the spirit of storytelling, these are oral summaries that the artist has researched extensively and translated into conceptual maps and image archives. In addition, Patricia Esquivias creates objects in which she incorporates significant images, symbols and fragments from the cosmos of her stories, to then embed them in a spatial context with her video works.

A historical narrative is only as convincing and credible as its author. Esquivias' work is like looking into the thoughts of an artist whose works examine historical theories that have been filtered through an idiosyncratic, hilarious, and highly subjective belief system. This creates a new and fascinating form of fact-based, self-critical fiction. An important part of the work of the artist, who was born in Venezuela and now lives and works in Madrid and Guadalajara, is the relationship between the old and the new world with indirect commentaries on colonial history.

In her work, micro-stories mix in an apparently random way with big narratives and reveal the impossibility of telling stories in a linear, simple and objective manner.
For the exhibition at Kunstverein Langenhagen she developed a new work in which Mexican cacti play a leading role. “Cardón cardinal” is the story of the giant cactus that was unearthed in the Mexican desert on the occasion of the Expo92 World Exhibition and flown to Seville by plane. It is still standing there today, slowly but surely drying up. Without presenting her own interpretation, Patricia Esquivias tells this story, which on the one hand refers to colonial practices, but on the other hand also illustrates how, after a (large or small) representative spectacle has subsided, responsibilities can be blurred, buried or pushed aside...