I'd like to invite you to my next solo exhibition which will take place in Galerie With Tsjalling (Oosterstraat 26, 9711NV Groningen).
The opening will be on Saturday the 17th of May between 17:00 and 19:00.
The exhibition will be on view until the 9th of June (opening times: Wednesday - Friday 12:00 - 17:00, Saturdays 11:00 - 17:00, 1st Sunday of the month 13:00 - 17:00).

Cities are always evolving, and people react to that in their own way. In Groningenthere has been much protest against the construction of the cultural Groninger Forum in the city center. In Berlin, the building hasn't stopped since the Wende, but gradually protests against the urge to innovate started to be sounded. Artist Julio Pastor researches the influence that urban planning has on people in the drawings he will show in the exhibition Construction Utopias at galerie with tsjalling: at Oosterstraat 26, Groningen.

Julio Pastor (1981) comes from Mexico City, but has been living in Groningen for over five years. Moving from one of the world's largest cities to a town of nearly 200,000 inhabitants has had a major impact on his perception of how urban infrastructure influences his everyday habits. As such, he has become far more susceptible to issues concerning urban planning; and the subject matter of his artistic practice aims to question the way cities are built, restructured and adapted.

A large part of the exhibited works were made during an artist-in-residency stay in the Center for Art and Urbanistics in Berlin. A number of the large scale watercolours he has made show the decay of megalomaniac projects during the Second World War and the DDR period, others combine elements in an almost nostalgic way. A text placed over the former Palast der Republik says it all: 'Nichts halt ewig', nothing lasts forever. The complete series was recently shown in Berlin and an accompanying publication has been made, titled 'Under Construction'.

The most recent drawings are inspired by photo's of the dismantling of buildings on the eastern side of the Grote Markt in Groningen. These buildings have had to make way for the Groninger Forum, a multifunctional building that sharply divides the cities society and politics. Like in all his drawings Pastor knows how to combine demolition, decay and the disorder apparent on construction sites into something of beauty, thereby aided by his mastery of the watercolour technique.

http://www.withtsjalling.nl/