Spanish artist lets water run the show
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Kristen Stevens
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 07, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - In his current exhibition ’70% water, 99% sponge’ Mersin-based Spanish sculptor Juan Botella Lucas plays up the irony that the Earth’s lack of water coincides with the planet’s reality of melting icecaps, flooding cities and what he calls ’the global fear of being left underwater’.
Sculptor Juan Botella Lucas’ use of absorbent material reminds the viewer of mankind’s place in the natural cycle - like spare parts crouching under our fragile frames and porous natures. Faucets, pipes and fountains flow into graves, mouths and ovaries in Lucas’s latest exhibit at Pi Artworks in Beyoğlu, examining the mortality of the people at either end of all that running water. And those of us looking on.
Born in Madrid in the waning days of a long dark dictatorship, Lucas came of age in an explosive post-Franco decade called "La Movida Madrileña". The sociocultural movement that took place in Madrid during the ten years floowing Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 signaled Spain’s sudden economic rise and the emergence of new Spanish identity. This urban cultural wave was also characterized by young people’s adherence to new slang, drugs, and punk-rock anarchy. Outside Spain, the best known Madrileño artist from that period is Pedro Almod?var, whose early films reflected the freedom of the moment.
Lucas studied in the Faculty of Fine Arts of Complutense University of Madrid, later earning a degree from the Department of Sculpture. Through the Erasmus study abroad program and various grants, he traveled to Germany where he earned a second bachelor’s degree of arts and Masters degree from what is today UdK in Berlin. He was selected as a ’Meister Schüler’ at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts in 1999.
Since 1998 he has been based in Mersin in Turkey’s southeastern Mediterranean region, where he creates and lectures as a faculty member in the Sculpture Department of Mersin University. Year after year he continues to churn out exhibitions of his works in contemporary art centers in Istanbul (Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Apel Gallery, and Pi ArtWorks Galleries).
Represented by Pi Artworks since 2007, his first Pi Artworks exhibition "Bailes de mente II" in 2008 showed Lucas’ view of life and death as a matter of brutal simplicity. He participated in the recent "Death=Death" exhibition curated by Levent Çalıkoğlu, the 10th İstanbul Biennial and the 22th Mediterranean Biennial in Alexandria, Egypt in 2003.
In his current exhibition "70% water, 99% sponge" Lucas plays up the irony that the earth’s "lack of water" coincides with a time when the planet faces the reality of melting icecaps, flooding cities and what he calls "the global fear of being left underwater". Made from 99 percent sponge, his sculptures have an absorbing effect: Humans are made of 70 percent water. Fountains have a uniting property, he said. "Fountains offer water to us and in a way we give water back to them by spitting, crying and in many other forms..."
We are what we drink
In the Pi Artworks exhibit, faucets, fountains, graves, mouths and ovaries take shape in the form of large and medium scale three-dimensional renderings. Sprawling across two galleries, the first presentation features water; fountains, pipes and old Ottoman faucets. The second gallery magnifies the mortality of the humans at either end of all that running water. Fountains flow in artistic contrast to Ottoman graves and anatomic details Ğ bare teeth, mouths, dog nose and an ovary.
The absorbent material reminds the viewer of mankind’s role in the world’s absorption process. The works also imply that we also passively absorb the normalcy of extremes with little consideration of the part we play: Death comes from either too much or too little water. Our survival itself is a solvent, absorbent thing and Lucas’ work brings us closer to our interaction with the water around us.
Lucas' solo show continues through February at Pi Artworks Tophane, daily except Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. or by appointment. For more information, visit www.piartworks.com.
Born in Madrid in the waning days of a long dark dictatorship, Lucas came of age in an explosive post-Franco decade called "La Movida Madrileña". The sociocultural movement that took place in Madrid during the ten years floowing Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 signaled Spain’s sudden economic rise and the emergence of new Spanish identity. This urban cultural wave was also characterized by young people’s adherence to new slang, drugs, and punk-rock anarchy. Outside Spain, the best known Madrileño artist from that period is Pedro Almod?var, whose early films reflected the freedom of the moment.
Lucas studied in the Faculty of Fine Arts of Complutense University of Madrid, later earning a degree from the Department of Sculpture. Through the Erasmus study abroad program and various grants, he traveled to Germany where he earned a second bachelor’s degree of arts and Masters degree from what is today UdK in Berlin. He was selected as a ’Meister Schüler’ at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts in 1999.
Since 1998 he has been based in Mersin in Turkey’s southeastern Mediterranean region, where he creates and lectures as a faculty member in the Sculpture Department of Mersin University. Year after year he continues to churn out exhibitions of his works in contemporary art centers in Istanbul (Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Apel Gallery, and Pi ArtWorks Galleries).
Represented by Pi Artworks since 2007, his first Pi Artworks exhibition "Bailes de mente II" in 2008 showed Lucas’ view of life and death as a matter of brutal simplicity. He participated in the recent "Death=Death" exhibition curated by Levent Çalıkoğlu, the 10th İstanbul Biennial and the 22th Mediterranean Biennial in Alexandria, Egypt in 2003.
In his current exhibition "70% water, 99% sponge" Lucas plays up the irony that the earth’s "lack of water" coincides with a time when the planet faces the reality of melting icecaps, flooding cities and what he calls "the global fear of being left underwater". Made from 99 percent sponge, his sculptures have an absorbing effect: Humans are made of 70 percent water. Fountains have a uniting property, he said. "Fountains offer water to us and in a way we give water back to them by spitting, crying and in many other forms..."
We are what we drink
In the Pi Artworks exhibit, faucets, fountains, graves, mouths and ovaries take shape in the form of large and medium scale three-dimensional renderings. Sprawling across two galleries, the first presentation features water; fountains, pipes and old Ottoman faucets. The second gallery magnifies the mortality of the humans at either end of all that running water. Fountains flow in artistic contrast to Ottoman graves and anatomic details Ğ bare teeth, mouths, dog nose and an ovary.
The absorbent material reminds the viewer of mankind’s role in the world’s absorption process. The works also imply that we also passively absorb the normalcy of extremes with little consideration of the part we play: Death comes from either too much or too little water. Our survival itself is a solvent, absorbent thing and Lucas’ work brings us closer to our interaction with the water around us.
Lucas' solo show continues through February at Pi Artworks Tophane, daily except Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. or by appointment. For more information, visit www.piartworks.com.