The “Art i Context 2023-2025” project, which traces the artistic production process of a group of young Valencian artists, concludes with a collective exhibition designed as a “labyrinth” at the Valencian Institute of Contemporary Art (IVAM). … Six up-and-coming talents will showcase their “micro worlds”.
The final act of the second edition of this project focuses on artistic installations and, for the directors of IVAM, tower white“reflects very well what is happening in the Valencian community, the solidity of the proposal and the possibilities of Valencian art,” he explained during the presentation of the exhibition.
Bela Bagena, Pablo Bolmar, Juan de Dios de Morenilla, Marco Henri, Gema Giles and Sandra Marr explore the installation aspects of their respective works, but they also work under the common idea of forming this labyrinth.
The result is a “brave” and “solid” exhibition consisting of six proposals that “brilliantly combine this experimental and specific character” of each artist, De La Torre emphasized.
Reflections on everyday life, audio and fictional narratives, or the recontextualization of materials, show the routes that visitors can take through the work of the Elastica Mediator duo, comprising Elena San Martín and Elena Rocamora. Through videos and a device of “games and provocations” that suggest different questions and ways of moving around the room to the public, it encourages “getting lost in the labyrinth” and brings the work closer to all viewers.
Banquet by Gemma Quills
Gemma Quiles (Villa Real, 1994) explained that her artistic installations focus on ideas of banquets, excess and opulence. “This is a project that has taken time to research, so other proposals are also in the works. I took more material from my pictorial ideas and tried to give the installation its own weight, rather than recreating what could be painted outdoors,” he elaborated.
The result is Banquet, an installation in which his paintings surround a large table filled with shapes and glasses reminiscent of mountains and rivers. “A place for gatherings, meetings, and celebrations,” he explained.
Bela Bagena music
Bela Bagena (Valencia, 1994), on the other hand, stated that her installations responded to a study of “how to bring auditory and musical experiences into museum spaces” and transferred to IVAM the discourses that directed her music-making.
He thus created “Something Fall,” a sound installation composed of vases, each of which was associated with a separate sound piece. The piece is presented as an intimate garden, with each branch serving as a listening point.
Sandra Marr Poetry Gazebo
Sandra Mar (Valencia, 1995) emphasized the reclaiming of the gazebo concept, inspired by the common idea of the labyrinth. “The structures of these gardens are pauses and encounters,” which he uses to combine ceramic works and poems written in clay to create “fragmented narratives of encounters.”
As such, he explained that The Encounters is structured with “many twists and turns to explore.” A variety of objects help build his poetic stories, in which love, desire and affection play a central role.
Pablo Bolmar’s fictional company
In the case of Pablo Bolmar (Horta Nord, 1996), his artistic installation is located below the IVAM office and “absorbs its corporate energy” to create the fictional company “Canyar” and its offices, where the solution to the ecological problem of riverside reeds is put into practice, the artist explained.
The proposal blurs reality and fiction, with Vollmer combining some of its sugarcane research activities with more “speculative” parts, where the company proposes solutions such as manufacturing blocks to create micro-dams as an “additional transformational process to the existing existing process to clean up the valleys established by the Waterways Federation.”
Juan de Dios Morenilla’s pop goalkeeper
For Juan de Dios Morenilla (Caravaca de la Cruz, 1992), he elaborated, the concept of the labyrinth suggests several ideas, such as confinement and the mythical “Cancelbelo” as a “gatekeeper.” Therefore, in “Studio Telling”, a large dog with a pop aesthetic also proposes a dialogue between the outside and the inside, as visitors look behind the scenes and discover the ins and outs of creation.
In this way, this artistic installation introduces the viewer, through elements of painting and sculpture, to the psychological tensions inherent in the practice of artistic practice.
marco henri fire
Marco Henri’s installation (Metz, 1998) was inspired by the simple idea of a bonfire: “You can easily watch YouTube at home and develop something deeper”, an installation that speaks to “feelings of darkness and sadness” and relates them to fire.
In “H-VC1JD”, Henri uses a multimedia audiovisual installation consisting of a projection and a sound player. The artist performs a work of recontextualization based on sound and visual materials, applying modifications to achieve a ghostly meta-reading.
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