Javier Gutiérrez
IRREVERENTE
Pors and Rao
Applied Fiction
La colección (PARTE 2)
[I+E]2
13 May–11 September 2011
Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos
C. Saldaña s/n
09003 BURGOS
T 947 256 550
F 947 256 553
contacta [at] cabdeburgos.com
www.cabdeburgos.com
Applied Fiction
The irony, ingenuity and determination to interact with the audience is the essence of duo Aparna Rao (India, 1978) and Sorn Pors (Denmark, 1978) who have, since 2004, developed a multidisciplinary artistic practise in which mechanical engineering, electronics, and both programming and fabrication processes are involved. In a series of installations and objects, although abundant with industrial and technological design, the ultimate objective is to highlight the complexities of human relationships.
However, Pors and Rao’s creations are not focused on the usefulness of technology for its own sake, but rather on its application as a creative tool, on its evocative potential and on its capacity to penetrate every aspect of daily life and become an omnipresent device for our imagination. Even from an exclusively artistic point of view, Pors and Rao’s proposal stems from functionality so as to create works that are close to fiction and distort the way reality is perceived. Consequently, the viewer is compelled to explore the unconscious registers, frustrations and subtle limitations that influence relationships in society.
Javier Gutiérrez
IRREVERENT
The tender representation of himself that the artist Javier Gutiérrez (Córdoba, Argentina, 1973) offers through his paintings, allows the viewer to get lost in playful qualities (gestures, brush strokes, colours etc.) along with clear and palpable symbolism, and the great mastery of composition. Through his work the viewer is taken on a short trip into the artist’s own world in which emotions have a dominant role.
Gutiérrez, who is currently settled in Mexico DF, is a determined defender of the power of the image in containing and transmitting all sorts of emotions within a universe of static imagery. He creates a wide range of illustrations charged with individual arguments representing generally absurd situations, that sometimes have a dose of irony and humour, even when dealing with grief, death, illness, hate and a whole spectrum of archetypal human behaviours and characteristics.
Being somehow related to the subconscious and influenced by caricature and illustration-like aesthetics, his work is suggestive rather than being categorically opinionated. In spite of its figurative nature, it is not necessarily bound to a previous discourse through which it is justified for its own sake: for the Argentinean artist, painting is just another means of telling stories and of presenting ideas, feelings or sensations.
THE CAJA DE BURGOS COLLECTION. [I+E]2
As a sequel to the exhibtion [I+E] INVESTIGACIÓN + EMOCIÓN (Research + Emotion) held in the CAB and in different rooms of Saldañuela Palace in 2008, the Caja de Burgos would like to present its Art Collection, [I+E]2 made up of the art works which have helped to increase its collection during the last years: 2008, 2009,and 2010. This selection will be exhibited in two showings—the first one from January 28th to May 1st (floors 0 and 1) and the second from May 13th to September 11th (levels 0 and -1)—with the aim of presenting a general view of the works that Caja de Burgos is incorporating to its collection, relevant art works that have been selected from the individual exhibitions organised by the CAB over the above mentioned years.
Therefore, they are not isolated acquisitions or out of context, but pieces that, in most cases, have been conceived and produced particularly for the exhibitions in the CAB and which are enriched by the added value of being documents evidencing the artistic promotion led by the CAB over the years. Interviews with the artists and audio recordings of the artists’ guided visits in the CAB will be also shown.
Every effort has always been made by the Caja Burgos Art Collection to avoid hermetic divisions or favouritism towards one or another tendency: taking research as a starting point, as well as the contact with new artists and creative proposals, the directors of the Caja de Burgos Art Collection (made up of more than 600 works offering a panoramic view of contemporary art in Spain and abroad from the 90′s onwards), guided on some occasions by intuition or emotions, have outlined the paths through which current plastic and visual creation evolve; an artistic and changing reflection of our society.
