site.btaArgentine Artist Alberto Morales to Hold Retrospective Exhibition Dedicated to Antarctica

Argentine sculptor Alberto Morales, known as "the artist of Antarctica", will visit Bulgaria to present his book Al sur del Sur, mi Antarctica (South of the South, My Antarctica) and to hold a retrospective exhibition of his works spanning the years 2005-2023, the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute said.

The exhibition will be in Sofia University and will run from September 12 to 20, 2023. The opening will take place at 6 pm on Tuesday.

"The book came as a result of my travels and stay at the Argentine bases in Antarctica over a period of 40 days in 2005. I was invited by the Argentine National Directorate for Antarctic as a plastic artist with the rank of researcher for the Argentine Antarctic Cultural Project. This is the story, the journey, and the adventure of an Argentine artist on the White Continent," Morales said. "My mission was to interpret Antarctica as a working theme: to collect images and sensations from the territory and to get in direct contact with its nature and with the people who work there. In this way, I could reflect a poetic vision of Antarctica for a wide audience," he added.

"I worked on small sketches, notes, paintings, and photographs, and then, back in my workshop in Buenos Aires, I created the work that described this experience. I painted what happens to the human soul in a territory extreme in every way and in pure isolation. I painted white on white, the stone and ice, the light, the long day in summer and the long night in winter, the atmosphere, the wind and the cold, and, the most painful part of the current reality - the impact of climate change," said the artist.

The works included in the publication have been declared of cultural interest by the Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation in 2018 and by the Buenos Aires City Legislature in 2019. The book Al sur del Sur, mi Antarctica has been declared of cultural interest by the Buenos Aires City Legislature in 2021 and by the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation in 2022.

Alberto Morales was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied drawing. He had his first solo exhibitions in 1976 and 1977 at Lirolay Gallery. In 2005, he was invited by the National Directorate for Antarctic to travel and paint for 40 days in Antarctica on the occasion of the centenary of the Argentine presence on the continent. It was there that he produced some of his most impressive works.

At present, many of Alberto Morales’s works are displayed in various galleries and museums in Argentina and around the world.