Deambular (Wandering) Artium, Basque Museum of Contemporary Art
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
July 6th – September 2nd 2012
Praxis Project: Curated by Blanca de la Torre – Production coordination by Yolanda de Egoscozabal
Deambular – Actions in the public space of Vitoria-Gasteiz and in the exhibition space
Control center and exhibition space: Praxis, North Gallery, ARTIUM
Curators: Sergio García and Javier Abarca
Every morning on the museum’s wall, using the correspondent color, I painted the path I have been walking the day before. Using masking tape, the drawing was stylized and simplified. I added a rule: the more I transited a street during that day, the thicker I had to paint the line. This uncontrolled mural evolved everyday during the 12 days of the residency. The idea was to generate a wall painting in which the final appearance was out of my control and to appreciate the result as a whole abstract painting and not like individual maps.
I used a large paper map to transfer the daily paths from my notebook to the museum wall. This graphic transfer process generated a huge quantity of colored dots (the ones I was marking and following as guides to paint the lines on the wall). The large map proved to be a faithful replica of the map I was creating while sticking the colored dots everyday in the city. This large piece, called Matrix Map, was left on the floor of the museum in the middle of the room – the same place it could be found during the time I was working in the museum.
C-Space Red No.1 – C1 & C2, Caochangdi, Beijing, China
June 30th – August 26th 2012
Curated by Nora Jaccaud – Directed by Melle Hendrikse
The 1/1 project aims to bring contemporary art to the street and the street into the gallery. Bringing art to unexpected places has been the goal of this French artist since he started painting abstract geometric figures in the street back in 1999. At the entrance of Caochangdi there is a sign that reads “Caochangdi Art Village”. However, when Eltono came for the first time, he was surprised to find an almost tangible frontier dividing the village and the galleries. After spending a few days in Caochangdi it became clear to him that the people who come to visit the galleries often miss the village, and very few villagers go and visit the art galleries. During his one month residency in Caochangdi, Eltono decided to use his paintings to create a link between these two worlds. To begin, he mapped out the village including all of the tiny streets and alleyways, noting down all the doors he found interesting or inspiring. Entering into conversation with the villagers he explained the goal of his project and asked permission to paint their doors – this served as the first link between the artist and the village. Over the next several weeks, he spent time connecting with residents and painting, creating a path throughout the neighborhood filled with mysterious abstract images.
A selection of life size photographs, the result of Eltono’s residency, were on exhibit in C-space gallery until the end of August, 2012. The rest of the doors can still be viewed by wandering the streets of Caochangdi and following the map produced by the artist (downloadable here).
The aim of this project is to create an exchange between two groups: the art community and the local residents. Those who regularly visit art galleries are invited to have a walk in the village and enjoy the paintings in their original locations, while the residents are invited to enter the art gallery and see photographs of their doors in a new and unfamiliar context. The “1/1” title refers to the life size printed photographs of the doors as well as the one to one relationship that exists between the exhibition space and the street – for Eltono these two spaces are equally valid when it comes to displaying art. The life size photographs create the illusion of real doors and build a virtual passageway connecting the street and the gallery. Using street art as his medium, the 1/1 project by Eltono hopes to provide a platform where art is accessible to everyone.
The life-size door photographs are available for purchase through the gallery. Each photo is unique and numbered 1/1. The pictures were taken with a 6×7 medium format argentic camera and printed with giclée technique on high quality photographic paper.
Photos by Sierra and Eltono.
Thanks Melle, Nora, Wangfan, Lina, Cindy, Liugang, Angela & Aitor, Sierra, Alonso, Jacob, Elisa and of course: Xinkai, Haizi, Maomao, Caochandi Number 1 and all the residents of Caochangdi.
SC Gallery
C/ Cortes 4, Bilbao, Spain
October 7 – November 25 2011
SC Gallery invited me to Bilbao to paint a mural for the BLV-art festival and to set-up a show in their gallery. This festival took place in Bilbao la Vieja neighborhood. I called the show Eredu which means “model” or “pattern” in Basque. My idea was to showcase different works all made using varying techniques that together highlight a common and characteristic pattern. The artworks presented were: four photographic enlargements of illegal paintings I had done in the street during my stay in Bilbao, mounted on dibond; five confetti and double sided tape compositions on Super-Alfa paper; thirty 10×15 cm documentation pictures of the mural I painted in Urazurrutia street #20; two prints out of my new Confetti edition and a painting on the rounded wall inside the gallery.
If you are interested in purchasing any of these pieces, please contact the gallery: www.scgallery.es
Delimbo
Calle Pérez Galdós nº 1, Sevilla, Spain
May 14th – July 15th 2010
The Reticula exhibition is the study of a union between calculated geometric forms and uncontrolled factors such as wear caused by spontaneous actions produced by pedestrians. Through experiments in the streets of Seville, I observed how these external factors were affecting the works installed in the street while at the same time influencing the results that would be presented in the gallery.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the pieces, please contact the gallery: www.delimbo.com
The SCRIPT project (see Script 1.0) consists of murals painted by following a set of predefined rules determined by the artist. Thus, the development of the work is done in an uncontrolled manner and the end result is unexpected.
In this way, the artist is a spectator in his own artwork, and can be surprised by the outcome.
To run the script in Sevilla, I drew a grid on the wall where, according to the results obtained, the lines would be drawn. Each line depended on four elements:
1 – A horizontal coordinate (a letter)
2 – A vertical coordinate (a number)
3 – A color
4 – A direction (an arrow)
For example: E, 7, yellow, vertical upward.
I decided to leave the choice (though unconscious) of these four elements to the pedestrians. I stapled sheets of paper arranged in four groups (one for each item) in the street. Each group made a sort of mini-notebook from which the leaves could be torn. In this manner the combinations that defined the lines of the mural were formed on there own. I walked around the city to record the state of the papers between four and six times a day. I only wrote down the codes generated on a site where at least one paper had been torn. Each time a new combination was generated, I wrote it down in a notebook in the order in which it was seen. The day before the opening, we reviewed all the combinations and painted each line in the order in which it was documented.
The experiment lasted five days and 19 lines were painted.
Video:
Photos:
(Click on the picture to enlarge.)
Carteles Desgarrados (Torn Posters)
I returned to the Pubblico project but this time with more refined designs, as an homage to both Jacques Villeglé and Daniel Buren. Like the previous project in Milan, once the posters were plastered, I only allowed myself to observe and decide when it was time to retrieve them. Of the 15 sets of posters that were pasted, 8 were recovered and exhibited in the gallery. Some took less than 12 hours to be modified and others more than 5 days.
Video:
Photos:
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Set #1
Calle Santa Paula 22
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 00h59
Recovered: 11/05/2010 at 14h40
Set #2
Calle San Luis 7
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 01h06
Recovered: 11/05/2010 at 14h08
Set #3
Calle San Luis 18
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 01h13
Disappearance documented: 10/05/2010 at 11h49
Set #4
Calle San Luis 28
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 01h18
Last seen: 15/05/2010 at 17h46
Set #5
Calle San Luis 40
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 01h32
Disappearance documented: 13/05/2010 at 14h13
Set #6
Plaza Santa isabel 3
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 01h39
Recovered: 11/05/2010 at 14h17
Set #7
Plaza de la Alameda 94
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 22h12
Disappearance documented: 11/05/2010 at 18h26
Set #8
Plaza de la Alameda
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 22h52
Recovered: 11/05/2010 at 13h34
Set #9
Plaza de la Alameda
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 23h03
Disappearance documented: 11/05/2010 at 13h41
Set #10
Calle Belen 1
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 23h16
Last seen: 16/05/2010 at 13h36
Set #11
Calle Peris Mencheta 4
Posted: 10/05/2010 at 23h31
Recovered: 11/05/2010 at 01h51
Set #12
Calle Cruz Verde 4
Posted: 11/05/2010 at 00h49
Recovered: 12/05/2010 at 16h49
Set #13
Calle Cruz Verde 10
Posted: 11/05/2010 at 00h55
Recovered: 12/05/2010 at 16h32
Set #14
Calle Correduría 46
Posted: 11/05/2010 at 01h03
Last seen: 15/05/2010 at 23h56
Set #15
Calle Churruca 5
Posted: 11/05/2010 at 01h10
Recovered: 13/05/2010 at 16h56
Thanks to Laura, Seleka, Victoire, Rorro and Axel.
Residency project: From April 1st to May 26th 2009
Exhibition at La galería en el Taller Mecánico: From May 21st to July 7th, Calle Plutarco Elias Calles #419, Colonia Tampiquito,
San Pedro, NL
I’ve been invited by Nrmal and El Narval to be the first artist to participate in Residencia Tampiquito, an artistic residency in a popular neighbourhood in San Pedro (Monterrey, Nuevo León, México). I lived and painted for two months in Tampiquito and at the end we opened an exhibition in a gallery to show the result of the residency.
I painted around 50 pieces on people’s houses, had a 10 years old best friend and assistant (because of the flu, the schools were closed so Javi my neighbors’ son was helping me to paint almost everyday!), had an incredible crew working with me sorting out photos, videos, press and BBQ’s and felt very sad when I had to go back home!
One day while I was painting, an amazing cumbia was played from a huge pick-up parked next to me. I met the owner of the car, Raúl el Tamborín, and after offering me a couple of beers, he gave me the tape as a gift! Nrmal made a mixtape out of it so everybody can enjoy it: https://nrmal.net/blog/nrmal/residencia-tampiquito-mixtape!
Thanks to: Lucas (Nrmal) and Luis (El Narval), Lalo, Samuel Catherine, Screw, Huizar, Maf, Malo, Angel, Lara, Telma, Paco, the Briones Morales family, Ofimodul, all my friends that helped and all Tampiquito residents!
Pictures of the exhibition at La Galería en el Taller Mecánico:
For the inside part of the residency, I worked on an installation, some prints and 4 wood replicas of paintings originally done in the street. With the great help of Screw, Huizar and Paco we built up the installation inspired in Tampiquito “do it yourself” architecture with typical elements we found around the neighborhood.
The replicas were made of wood and are life-size reproductions of paintings number 5, 28, 36 and 46.
Cripta 747
Galleria Umberto I, int. 29 Porta Palazzo, Turin, Italy
February 2nd – March 15th 2009
The Cripta747 space is quite big, I was really impressed when I arrived there. I had some ideas for the show but they didn’t fit in that huge place (one room on the ground floor and five in the basement). I had the idea tu use confetti (“coriandoli” in Italian) when I saw a pack in the window of a paper shop in Porta Palazzo promoted with other material for the carnival. I decided to make different experiments putting together graffiti and confetti, illegal aggression and harmless party pieces of paper. For the opening I made two interactive pieces inside the gallery. To organize the space and present the works in a proper way, I made a path with plastic fruit boxes, the gallery is situated on the square where the Porta Palazzo market happens every day and it is the biggest outdoor market in Europe. Tons of material to re-use.
No use to say that during two weeks, the guys from Cripta747 and me had a lot of fun working on this project.
(As there is a lot of documentation, it’s better to click on the list below to see video and pictures of each one, then “back to top” to come back here)
For a couple of nights I went to do graffitis with confetti and glue in Porta Palazzo neighbourhood.
I made 16 pieces in total.
In two of the rooms in the basement of the gallery I shown a video of the street actions, the pictures of the pieces and the 5 cardboard stencils I used.
This experiment was based on the idea to do something quite innocent (playing with confetti and wind) in a very hostile environment. It was nothing easy and we had to come back five times into the tunnel to achieve the plan. We could have done it more easily anywhere else but the idea was to do it a mission, to do it illegally and observe how all those factors which made it more difficult influenced the result of the experiment.
On the wall at the entrance of the basement, I nailed 50 Kit-Coriandoli to be sure that everyone had his own bag of confetti!
In the kit we of course put confetti and a little card with a simple “Eltono” design made with double face tape and with instructions on its back.
It was a gift so some people kept the kit but yes, others put the card back on the wall after following the instructions!
The ground floor of the gallery looks just like a pretty normal gallery with a big window-shop. That’s why I decided to present a “normal looking” work on that room so it could look like the exhibition is just there and nothing else, it was quite funny when people discovered that there were five more rooms downstairs with not so “normal looking” things happening down there!
The pieces shown in the room were made at the same time we did the sign on the window-shop, using the confettis that were falling and glue. I was totally stocked by this random result!
I actually found one confetti in my bed in Madrid yesterday morning, two weeks after the opening!!! I can imagine that the same thing is happening to all the people who came to the opening, fantastic!
Pictures are from: Renato, Eugenio Grosso, Alex Tripo, Elisa, Walter and Eltono.
Rojo Art Space
Via Tortona, Milan, Italy
January 15th – February 28th 2009
In Pubblico project, the public is the protagonist of the work. The final result of the artworks will depend on the spectator. The experiment plays with the interactivity that exists in the street and wants to study how outer and uncontrolled factors can affect the works installed in the street. This way, the artist reflects on the sacred aspect of art leaving his creations to self-evolve and generating an uncertain final result.
Video:
Pictures:
Preparation
I made 48 posters, each one unique and I pasted them in the neighbourhood around the gallery three by three in 16 spots.
I left the corners of the posters without glue on purpose and then I waited patiently…
Some were peeled in less than 24h and for others it took five days.
I made a control tour (“il giro”) of the 16 posters every 2 hours and when I decided that the result of one of them was interesting, I removed it and brought it back to the gallery.
I rescued 8 of the 16 posters and shown them in the gallery. About the other 8, 2 of them got stolen, 2 were destroyed and I left 4 in the street.
The result
Details
Pasted: Date and hour – Rescued: Date and hour – Place
