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_GaleríaÁngelesBaños_Javier Arbizu_Dossier Javier Arbizu focuses on the material conditions of our lives, on a certain work of archeology of . the present. An exploration of the nature of matter, the agencies and causalities of objects, as well as their capacity for action, interpellation and expression. Arbizu raises an approach to the unk- nown, the uncertain, the indecisive in order to find a form in the real that transforms and reinvents the symbolic through the aesthetic experience. In his works, what is potential or latent is as important as what is current and manifest. The trans- formation of everyday objects through minimal manipulations, juxtapositions, the misuse and degradation of many of the materials stresses the uncanny condition of things. In this way the artist questions the boundary between bodies and space, the human and the non-human, in a kind of reconstruction or emotional disfigurement that makes us think, through the material world, about the ecological and economic disaster of our era. The construction processes involve a negotiation exercise between the characteristics and dyna- mics of the materials and the intuitions and desires of the artist, always pondering a certain haptic condition. In this context, objects are understood as actants, which operate from their own physi- cal, temporal and psychological dynamics. That is, vital bodies that are affected by external stimuli, which alter their possibilities of interaction. Arbizu’s work pays special attention to the use of unconventional materials and their physical and chemical characteristics, their own processes of transformation, reaction and relationship with gravity, light or other agents, through various sculptural techniques, such as assembly, castings in plaster, melting of metals such as bismuth and steel welding. In short, they are worn out objects, abstracted in themselves, handmade with simple and sober techniques in response to a context where the standard is the digitalization of things, the oversaturation of images and the hyperratio- nalization of them. An elusive reference point_Ángeles Baños Gallery_03/16_05/04/19 How might we decipher the work of a visual artist who expresses and exhibits for us the result of a working process gathering years and experiences? Through its forms, materials and arrange- ment in space, we enter by means of shared clues into a complex creative universe of the artist’s own, built up over years and condensed into a single gesture, which is now apparently indeciphe- rable. Before us we see objects that function like a time capsule encompassing an experience, a life, many references, overlapping and eclipsing each other. Shared references that make up part of this shared horizon, that same sea we swim and dialogue in, part of an infinite conversation, a sea which will live on long after the end of our existence. Distances, space and time. The chronological time that presents events to us is a linear stage, upon which we can now find mere remains, empty, inert shells, which speak to us of what will live on when we do not. Perhaps just a shadow of what we once were, as the rest—skin, body, blood, eyes, tongue, heart—has all disappeared. Materials that evolve in constant transforma- tion, which like the bismuth used in the mould for these extremities, fossilized in the moment of action, are as fragile as our very existence. Yet this will not stop them from living on after we are gone, miraculously. This strange material, which irradiates light and seems to shatter as soon as we look at it, will be the last to be extinguished after a life estimated at some twenty trillion years, longer than the age of the universe. What will be left of us when we have died? What will survive if fire and lava scorch our bodies, like they did to the citizens of ancient Pompeii? Arbizu’s practice “puts-into-work and embodies places”, and thus makes it possible to explore notions that speak to us of human habitation and the permanence of things that concern and involve the human species. A gaze into the past that sends questions into the future, once again towards that apparently distant horizon we reach out to every day and step by step, however modestly. In our new contemporary, hyper-technological imaginary realm, it is dominated by the idea of a coming middle ages, a step backward into darkness again, faced with the terror and paralysis of our bodies against the coming financial apocalypse or final environmental disaster or newest volcanic eruption. Everything moves, the tectonic plates we have settled upon, what we call civilization. Everything is always and forever focused towards dusk, to the extinction of everything known. Untitled. Bismuth, steel, wool, fabric, plaster, ceramic, glass silver nitrate. Untitled. Bismuth Untitled. Bismuth and steel Untitled. Bismuth, steel and fabric Untitled. Plaster and steel Untitled. Diptic. 170 x 140 cm c.u. Oil on linen canvas and steel Detail Untitled. Diptic. 170 x 140 cm c.u. Oil on linen canvas and steel Untitled. Detail Untitled. Plaster, ropes, bismuth, glass,varnish and cardboard Sister song_Angeles Baños Gallery_03/18/16_05/17/16 The exhibition Sister Song takes as its starting point the ideas of chair, bed, and pillow. Three types of object which probably have their origin in Nilotic cultures and in the ancient Egypt (the scissors, the angarib, and the head restraint chair). A mythical origin full of symbols which cu- rrently goes unnoticed since they are objects that are perfectly integrated into our daily lives, having apparently lost his magical ability. For his first solo exhibition at Ángeles Baños Gallery, Arbizu has raised a specific facility that aims to connect the mythical past of these pieces of furniture with its present to confront the ideas of immutability and mutability. Arbizu understands the power of myths and impregnates his work with a suggestive narrative of lost gods and neglected liturgies, the result of the study of the past and the observation of the reality. His pieces have a quality fetish and act as a reservoir of a collective longing for beauty and meaning. His works are eulogies to missing objects, imaginary or ritual invented idols who either belong to the world of dreams and of the vigil. His work always retains the imprint of the hand and the marks of the tools used in their manu- facture. Both in her sculptures and paintings and his 16mm films, the construction process is a negotiation between the characteristics and dynamics of materials and the wishes of the artist, always pondering a certain hapticcondition. In this sample is presented the 16mm film “Untitled”, whose audio is manually produced by collage and scraping in the soundtrack of the celluloid. The film is designed so that in each reproduction presents subtle variations in the image and sound, as result of the physical friction and the overlap of the layers of the film in the projector. Untitled. Copper pipes, tin, plaster, tree branches, steel, plastic chairs, jeans, pallet wood, few seconds of 16mm film stock, luba headrest, hair. Knee-deep. La Casa Encendida. Madrid. Steel, glass, bismuth, silicone, silver nitrate, paraloid. 2020 Knee-deep. La Casa Encendida. Madrid. Steel, glass, bismuth, silicone, silver nitrate, paraloid. 2020 Knee-deep. La Casa Encendida. Madrid. Steel, glass, bismuth, silicone, silver nitrate, paraloid. 2020 Knee-deep. La Casa Encendida. Madrid. Steel, glass, bismuth, silicone, silver nitrate, paraloid. 2020 Studio. Academy of Spain in Roma. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. Steel, parafine and rubber. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. MDF panels and bismuth. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. Sneakers and screws. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. Bismuth. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. Jeans, staples and bismuth. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. Wood, glue ans screws. 2018 You are the sun, the sun doesn’t move, this is what it does. Academy of Spain in Rome. Taxidermized pigeon wings, steel, plaster, sneakers, bismuth. 2018 Studio. Academy of Spain in Roma. Plaster, sneakers, bismuth and cardboard. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Casa Huarte. Madrid. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Glass and polyurethane foam. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Glass, barnish and ceramic. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Casa Huarte. Madrid. Plywood, jeans, bismuth and tin alloy, staples and screws. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Casa Huarte. Madrid. Aluminum fabric. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Casa Huarte. Madrid. Staples, bismuth and tin alloy, sandals, clay, glass, silicone, sanded keys. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Casa Huarte. Madrid. Plastic chairs, pvc pipes, rivets, screws. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Casa Huarte. Madrid. Vintage BMW engine, taxidermized pigeon wings, bismuth. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Jorge Oteiza Museum. Alzuza. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Jorge Oteiza Museum. Alzuza. Plastic pipes, steel, plasterboards, bismuth, glass, sanded keys. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B. Jorge Oteiza Museum. Alzuza. Bismuth. 2018 Macla, Mamua, Bismuto,Vicario. Javier Arbizu and Karlos Martínez B.

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