RUINS OF THE ANTHROPOCENEThe contemporary phenomenon of aestheticization of ruins, leaving aside the case of Detroit, has found its preferred source of imagery in the former Eastern Bloc. As in 19th-century Romanticism, and earlier in Renaissance, the current interest in the remains of bygone cultures has little to do with the historical reality of the periods from which formal references are gleaned. The rediscovery and exploitation of art of pagan antiquity in Late Medieval Italy was possible precisely because its connection with ruination neutered the potential danger posed by its non-Christian origins. Once the ruins have been emptied of their primitive political meaning, the cult of aestheticization contributes to feeding new ideological narratives about the past. A significant consequence of this process is the collapse of the temporal and spatial complexity into a single time and place: ruination obscures historical and geographic context.This project consists in a set of fabricated ruins, familiar-looking fragments of ancient objects without a clearly identifiable origin. In the amalgamation of visual references we can pick out symbols and motifs from various human civilizations of the past (from Babylon to the USSR) as well as from our present. Considering such diverse ages and cultural traditions on the same level is just a step further in the mentioned process of appropriation of the aesthetic leftovers from a defeated civilization by a victorious one, including ourselves in the first category. |
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Historical Relief 2016 / 125 x 178 cm / Plasterboard, acrylic paint |
Still Life 2016 / 57 x 100 cm / XPS, clay, acrylic paint and airbrush |
Humanity 2016 / 66 x 65 cm / XPS, clay, acrylic paint and airbrush |
Warrior 2017 / 100 x 54 cm / Plasterboard and acrylic paint |
Head 2017 / 100 x 54 cm / Plasterboard and acrylic paint |
Beast 2017 / 100 x 54 cm / Plasterboard and acrylic paint |
Working Machines 2017 / 71 x 60 cm / Plasterboard, clay and acrylic paint |
Mosaic of Two Leaders 2017 / 55 x 75 cm / Wood, clay and plastic paint |
Red Armies 2017 / 70 x 120 cm / XPS, clay, plastic paint and marker |
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| Code of Law 2017 / 48 x 37 cm / XPS, clay and plastic paint |
Common Chimera 2017 / 30 x 35,5 cm / Plasterboard, clay and airbrush |
Installation View Prehistory Repeats Itself / Espositivo, Madrid / 2019 |
Installation View Prehistory Repeats Itself (with Theo Michael) / Espositivo, Madrid / 2019 |
Installation View Souvenirs from Nowhere / Matadero, Madrid / 2016 |
Installation View Zena eta dena / Kartzela zaharra, Markina / 2017 |
Installation View Zena eta dena / Kartzela zaharra, Markina / 2017 |