The exhibition by Javier Pérez (Bilbao, 1968) which is presented in ARTIUM Álava, after having been displayed in the Carré D’Art in Nimes (France), offers a review of his artistic trajectory from 1994 till present day. Javier Perez is one of our most international young artists.

The work of Javier Pérez can be framed within the group of artists whose work is closely bonded to the human body, and in his case, most particularly to his own body which is the central element of numerous art pieces. He considers the body to be, on the one hand, the space in which one lives temporarily, and on the other, the instrument with which one is able to extend towards to the outside. His sculptures, installations, drawings and videos refer to notions such as instability, ambiguity, lightness, the ephemeral and to the fragility of life itself. To express this feelings he uses, in some cases, materials such as smoke, crystal, porcelain or mirror, and in others, organic materials such as horse manes, bread or even silkworm chrysalis.

It could be said that the exhibition begins with the art piece Un pedazo de cielo cristalizado, permanently displayed in the museum’s hall since it belongs to ARTIUM’s permanent collection. This work, with its grandeur, the lightness of its crystal tears and its particular sound, welcomes the visitors into the museum. In some way, this work could be associated to Cúmulo, artpiece that opens the exhibition. The shape and lightness of this large polyester sculpture evokes a huge summer cloud.

Between 1995 and 1998, the artist focuses on the mysterious and exciting world of masks, and examples of it are Máscara ceremonial and Reflejos de un viaje. The former, in which the features of a human face are discovered under long horse manes suggests the artist’s interest and attraction towards ethnographic objects of this kind. The latter is a video-projection that shows how a man wearing a mirror mask (also on display), strolls at nigh in Prague. The ambiguity of this anonymous face, hidden behind the gleaming mask, and the distorted reflection of such a beautiful city on the mask, recall a mysterious atmosphere that becomes unreal and spectral as the protagonist comes closer.

Among Pérez´s recent works are El Baile de la soledad II and Un sueño largo. In this last work, he succeeds, by means of an long bed of great dimensions, to produce a striking perspective which modifies human scale and projects the visitor into a different space. There is great subtlety in Capilares II, in which he uses again mains to represent a vertical human spine and the blood flow system. The human body’s fragility is tackled in the delicate Levitas in which foot prints are represented on twenty one crystal bobbles, as if walking in the air, giving the impression of levitation.

The art piece Anatomía del deseo is particularly attractive due to texture of the material used. A group of objects with organic appearance is displayed over three tables lit by fluorescent lamps that projects a cold, hospital-like light. These objects made of Limoge porcelain suggest huge spermatozoids. It seams as if men’s sexual desire had been frozen and was about to be dissected.

There are other video-projections on displayed. In Un universo a medida (Métrica Mundis) a naked man throws balls into the air, that float but then brake against the flour. This act, only perceived though sound, is able to mix the Oneiric and the real. 60 escalones (Perpetuum Mobile) recreates the myth of Sisyphus. The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. and Látigo are two other pieces in which, again, we see a masked person moving violently. The person seams to, either perform a ritual dance, or desperately try to escape form himself.

Un agujero en el techo and the impressive Tempus Fugit, close up the exhibition. The first one recreates the allegory of Jacob’s ladder by means of 21 glass ladders, whose fragility leads the visitor into a spiral movement which ends up in a window placed in the upper part of the gallery. The unavoidable and feared passing of time is expressed in Tempus Fugit. A red-sand sand-clock, surrounded by twelve glass bells simultaneously toll reminding us of the briefness of life. As in great part of Javier Pérez´s work, the beauty and delicacy of chosen materials are openly contrasted to human’s fundamental questions.