Luis Bisbe Catalog (en)

7/27/2019 Luis Bisbe Catalog (en)

1/61

Luis Bisbe


2/61

La Casa Encendida o the Obra Social Caja Madrid continues to dedicate its e orts tothe promotion o contemporary artistic creation, on this occasion by hosting the exhibitioninteriorismoyexteriorismo (interiorismandexteriorism) byLuis Bisbe , one o the most prominentSpanish artists on the international scene.

The two installations that comprise the exhibition are related to the basic architecturalprinciple o the di erence between interior and exterior and attempt to break through thesebarriers and everything they imply: the interior is associated with protection, protection with earand sa ety.

Transcending these limits, or at least questioning their suitability, is Bisbes aim here.

Continuing in the line o previous works, he uses the existing space to generate aprovisionally di erent use and introduce another order, thus drawing attention to the rigidity othe ormer order. Hence, we see a dislocated house in an exhibition hall, its interior visible on theoutside, and a guardhouse keeping watch over the empty interior o the hall.

The publication that accompanies the show reproduces the work on display at La CasaEncendida as well as previous works and details o the artists career, including excerpts romhis videos. Finally, I would like to thank Luis Bisbe or his cooperation and enthusiasm, andeveryone else whose e orts have brought this project to ruition.

Carmen Contreras GomezDirector o Obra Social Caja Madrid


3/61

Conversation with Mart Peran


4/61

006 007

Mart PeranYouve sometimes said you were reluctant to have your work translated into words as youwere convinced that i a work is e ective it should need virtually no explanation. With thisin mind, Id like you to say something about the titles o your projects - many o whichyouve changed or this publication. Sometimes they act as a rst, basic pointer to thekey to the work, albeit through onomatopoeia. But at the same time, you use your titlesto bring in a good deal o i rony. All o which suggests that, despite their apparently minorrole, your titles actually play a very important part indeed.

Lus BisbeI can never be completely convinced o the e ectiveness o my work. I I were, Id have to sayit had come to an end, although I do pay a lot o attention and put a lot o distrust into that inthe hope o it leading to a certain degree o communicativeness. Id love explanations to besuper uous, I dont trust artworks that need them. Ive also changed the titles so that theyll bemore similar to what I call them and so avoid con usion. Ive changed them just as Id changesome things about the works themselves i I were to exhibit them again and because I wantto eliminate preconceptions orced on the work by the title. Once a work is on display, itsinterpretation is up to the observer. I dont want him or her to eel at a loss because they dontknow what the o fcial interpretation is. Thats why the titles are descriptive more than anythingelse, a starting point to direct observation. Its also why I use onomatopoeia, which is lessabstract and representative than other words. Whats really ironic is trying to get a work to meanonly what you want it to mean. Things give o meaning all the time.


5/61

008 009

MPThis stress on direct communication with as little as possible in between is really anaspiration that art tried to ul l by appeali ng to interaction. Through projects demandingdirect participation on the part o the spectator, even in a physical sense, it tried toemphasise use value over and above the sustained value in correct interpretation andunderstanding. In your case, this possibility is translated into a need or the spectator tomove around inside the space youve manipulated but he never has a chance to triggermechanisms that could change the way your devices behave. Moving around in space,multiplying perspectives, are the only tools you o er the spectator as he views the work,but the heterodox pro le o your architectural structures gives me the sensation osomething similar to a tour o Piranesis drawings, o structures apparently impossibleto translate into three dimensions. Something like this can be seen in Trampolnblanco(1999) and especially Pisopiloto (2001), where the invitation to actually move aroundinside a supposedly impossible space (the larger inside the smaller) is a reality.

LBIve always been reluctant to co-operate in situations where the spectators participation wasrequired. I eel like a lab mouse observed - and sometimes recorded - by the artist as it pulls alever. When I go to an exhibition I pre er to be the one observing rather than being observed. Idont need the visitor to act in any particular way but o course I do pre er him to wander aroundthe space rather than give him a single point o view - as with photographs. But the works youvementioned arent just or looking at. You can stretch the elastic cords, make them vibrate andmomentarily distort the drawing.1

In themselves those drawings are incomplete, 2 theyre sur aceless structures. And as you walk around them, 3 you begin to see them as volumes and there ore little by little 4 fll in the imageyoure getting o them. The space people reconstruct is more mental than physical and beingable to cross the representation and move through doors or walls as in Puertarroja (1999)rein orces the representations character as a mental structure. What I fnd interesting is thewandering through a space where the physical and mental are superimposed exaggeratedlyso as to displace that mechanism in the direction o the rest o the world, where the two havealways overlapped. 5

They arent completely impossible spaces. They could actually be built and in act they arenton a 1:1 scale so as to avoid a degree o representation, 6 or what comes down to the samething, to lie a little less.7 The Pisopiloto (2001) building isnt any bigger yet 8 - but it is underconstruction, the germ o something that could become larger. The aspect o being perpetuallyunder construction - both the representation and the structure represented - is what they havein common with the Carceri , which are also still under construction. However, the moti isnt sogrim because Pisopiloto (2001) makes a re erence to a place that could become anything. Arecently started work is a per ect place to project or - as Balzac said - a promise o happiness.

21

6 7 8

3 4 5


6/61

010 011

trampolinblanco is a three-dimensional drawing o a springboard inside an old chapel. It is made o white elastic cords stretchedat the ends by thin steel wires.Nou planetes; Dos piezas Juntas . La Capella, Barcelona, 1999.


7/61

012 013

pisopiloto is a three-dimensional drawing o thestructure o a building under construction insideanother building. Mostly made o elastic cordsstretched at the ends by thin steel wires, it alsoincludes all kinds o red elements.Piso piloto . Galera Salvador Daz, Madrid, 2001.


8/61

014 015

puertarroja is a three-dimensional drawing o a door in a wall that both divides and connects the two parts o the space. It is made o red elasticcords stretched at the ends by thin steel wires.

Art Forum . Galera Antonio de Barnola, Berlin, 1999.Piso piloto. Galera Salvador Daz, Madrid, 2001.


9/61

016 017

MPTo re er again to what we said about the literary in your work, Id like to ask you anotherquestion. Nearly all your projects can be seen as explorations o the ways in whichtime a ects space - reconstructing previous scenic moments in the same space 9 ( Pretecnologapunta , 2003), contrasting projected images o objects rom a time thathas been rozen with the real time o the same objects ( Enchufeproyectado , 2001,Ventiladorproyectado , 2003) or simply recording the spatial mobility o the actual passingo time ( Tictac , 2006). Following the minute e ects o time on space as it moves orwardinvolves a logical narrative very close to literary narrative. In a way, the character o manyo your works comes close to the traditional poetics o Oriental literature on the minute.

LBI like your use o the word explorations as opposed - as I see it - to re ection, which seemsto be more closely linked to the idea o a result, a conclusion, which Im not interested in. Very

ew o my works can be regarded as not connected with time and space. Lets say theyre likea rame where everything happens, 10 because one cant exist without the other. I fnd gettingaway rom those two coordinates di fcult, Im always in a more or less specifc place and time.I suppose some people are capable o fnding another sphere, but it doesnt come easy to me.Im bogged down in those coordinates.I dont pay any attention to the literarya priori and that was what I meant be ore when I mentionedopen interpretation. I try to give my work immediacy - a kind o exaltation o the here-and-nowrather than a narrative logic. But i thats what you see, Im sure its there. Anything that appearsunwittingly in an apparently controlled work is relevant.As or the poetics o the minute, like some Marxists I believe theres treasure everywhere. Theinsignifcant and the everyday 11 are my laboratory, where I spend most o my time, getting involved,drawing back, as much as I can. Much o my work is the result o shi ting between the two.I dont think the scale o what we observe completely determines the scope. 12 The interestingthing about paying more attention to the way o looking at an object than to the object itsel isthat such a process can go on working in our subsequent experience.

9

12

10 11


10/61

018 019

pretecnologapunta was made especially or the inauguration o theCentro de Arte Contemporneo and recreates the same workingenvironment inside the exhibition space during its remodelling.For it I have also used sca olding, stepladders, tables... and pink elastic cord and steel wire.Pretecnologa punta . Centro de Arte Contemporneo, Malaga, 2003.


11/61

020 021


12/61

022 023

enchu eproyectado is a slide o a plug projected onto itsel . The projection returns the light towards the appliances energy sourcebut the slide is invisible as the same image taken by the camera ts exactly over the model.Des ent se un lloc. Can Felipa, Barcelona, 2003.Surplus . Centro Cultural de Espaa, Lima, 2001.

ventiladorproyectado is a slide o the motionless an projected onto the blades o the working an.Des ent se un lloc. Can Felipa, Barcelona, 2003.Vent . Alta ulla, 2003.

Arco06 . Galera Moriarty. Madrid, 2006


13/61

024 025


14/61

026 027

previous page:tictac is a sequence shot o my wrist watch as seen at the time itwas lmed. It is an attempt to give images rom the past one lastbreath in the present. It is a video and it is a watch.Loop 24 hr.

yavoy is a video in which a cyclist keeps pedalling but does notmanage to move orward.Loop 3


15/61

028 029

MPYour saying that treasure is everywhere leads me to a supposition I always made aboutyour work. You o ten build arti acts through which energy that causes eedback or isproductively distributed circulates. Electricity, air or the circulation o water are theembodiment o a kind o e ntropy power. Thats o ten the case. Electrical energy producesan image o itsel (sockets or ans), the circulation o water unleas hes reactions ( Blindate ,2005) or actual sculptures ( Fuentedemieeerda , 2006). In any case, its the distributionbrought about by that power that seems to be the central issue.I even think that that sort o energy saving could be interpreted as a crossroads wherespace and time meet. Space as a place ull o devices which, when turned on, canchange everything.

LBAlmost always my starting point has been an exhibition space and a date 13 and the question Io ten ask mysel is something like: What can I do at this time in this place that could only be donehere and then. But that is only a starting point, a line o work which as things develop sometimes

ades. Its only a question that o ten isnt even answered. Most o the spaces dedicated to artare usually almost empty and apart rom the white walls and the odd door, the only things youtend to fnd are the electrical system, water sometimes, partitions, lights, air conditioning andsecurity cameras, 14 (all o which I normally use in my wo rk, except - so ar - or the cameras) andthese connect the space with the outside world and underline their dependence. The beginningo many projects is whats already there - and that means time and space simultaneously. Butby making a provisionally di erent15 use o things and bringing in another order, 16 I also pointout both the change 17 and the previous order, whose in exibility and permanence I also want todraw peoples attention to. 18

13 14 15

16 17 18


16/61

030 031

MPYour answer brings us back to the question o the dynamics o time. But with that ideaon energy distribution I wanted to point out a kind o suggestion o economic processes,the distribution o power, the optimisation o resources... a range o issues in which theactual use o the things that are already there (a door, a tap, an electrical connection...)becomes a orm o recycling.

LBWhen you play around with those things, you come to realise that they are there and that theycan act in other ways, ollow other strategies. When I mentioned dependence on energy, thatwas just what I was talking about: the use o the exhibition space, who pays the bills and whobenefts rom the money thats spent (needless to say, me or one but the Ministry o Culture orCaja Madrid too).That awareness o the use o energy ows19 can be seen rom various points o view inEnchufeproyectado (2001), Fuentedemieeerda (2006), and in others, but especially inSummertime (2006), which wastes a lot o energy in order to give in ormation thats too power uland makes it hard to receive the message. Thats completely di erent rom the idea o recycling.I use whats available20 because its what comes to hand. I recycling only means reusing 21 thenyes, I am a born recycler, but i you take the energy I put into recycling into account, Im asquanderer, a very bad example to others.

19 20 21


17/61

032 033

blindate is a jet o water rising out o a hydrant and striking astreetlamp that lights up when someone approaches. It is acelebration o the encounter. (I devised it be ore uentedomstica and made it a ter).Divergentes . Zumaia, 2005.


18/61

034 035

uentedomstica I turned the kitchen tap upwards and lengthenedthe light bulb cable so that the bulb and the jet o water wouldtouch. (This is a home-made version rom be ore I knew i I wouldever make blindate ).Domstico-04 . Madrid, 2004.


19/61

036 037

uentedemieeerda The sewage rom a WC at the Art Centre is redirected to an illuminated coloured ountain situated, likevarious others, at the centre o a cloister.

Join us . Centre dArt Santa Mnica, Barcelona, 2006.


20/61

038 039


21/61

040 041

summertime is a clock that gives in ormation with so much power thatit is di cult to read; just one more extravagant expense.

Aqu o ahora y nunca . Galera Moriarty, Madrid, 2006.

Lesdeveniment expandit . Centre dArt Santa Mnica, Barcelona, 2008.


22/61

042 043

MPThe concept o the installation is awkward and tricky. Although its been explored inmany di erent ways, I think the most interesting is the one that links it to the traditiono criticising institutions. Its very simple: inso ar as the installation can easily become awork that takes the space its assembled in as the object it refects, by underlining theinstitutional as the most characteristic thing connected with that space, it becomes anarrative and critical strategic model o museum spaces and the rules o acceptance,exhibition and collection. In spite o this enormous potential, in Dingdong (2005) you onlytook up this point o view explicitly, making the project revolve around the issue.

LBYes, actually I do eel a deep aversion to meta-art and as ar as I can I try to resist the temptationto make re erences to everything surrounding the artistic as I just end up by getting bored. 22 I think I have to ocus my attention more on the positive side. Im not at all interested in howcountries manage their museum spaces - most o them are disciplinary - but rather how I canuse that structure to the advantage o my own reedom. By constantly re erring to it, you giveit more importance and power than it deserves. But the way Art is shown in museums andexhibition rooms has been the direct object o my attention and o ten the subject o my work.In a case like this its very revealing when you look at the problems o o pening a door onto thestreet 23 can cause a museum. Museums - and institutions in general - are places or preservingthings, stopping time or trying to check it. For me thats pro oundly anti-artistic and etishist.Which is why I like working outside museums so much. I fnd it re reshing.

22 23


23/61

044 045

dingdong is an open door connecting an exhibition room with the street outside. I have changedthe museums sa ety and access regulations in such a way that the door, which had always beenclosed, is now open during the museums opening times. But a mechanism closes it to any visitorapproaching rom inside the museum or behind intruders entering rom the street, trapping allinside the museum.All the e orts museums make to sa eguard and preserve works o art are contrary to the mostimmediate mani estations o li e: the passing o time (temperature and humidity change, noise,sunlight) and reedom o movement (sa ety and access regulations). Security guards and curatorsdo everything they can to ensure that nothing gets in. A door opening onto the street a ectssa ety regulations, cold or heat come in, as do humidity, noise, ultraviolet radiation and non-payingvisitors.Ding dong . Patio Herreriano Museo de Arte Contemporneo Espaol, Valladolid, 2005.


24/61

046 047


25/61

048 049

MPPerhaps in Pinpanpum (2003) there was also a duplication o space that clearly a ectedthe nature o institutional places. In that game o the representation o space, theoriginal structure lay within the area o the artistic, whereas the new representation gavethe impression o a fight towards reality.

LBIn my last ew projects I abandoned representation even more. At the same time I elt the urgeto work with objects that are the most per ect representations o themselves. And I supposethat, since the art rooms are empty, Ive dri ted towards where things really are: outside. A streetis a much more complex space than an exhibition room. There are no security guards or whitebackground, but theres noise, changes in light, temperature, humidity level, and youre judgedon everything and by everybody, but thats what I fnd so interesting. On the other hand, I think public spaces sprinkled with works o art are horrible.


26/61

pinpanpum consists o two projections repeatedly showingthe construction and destruction o the space in which theprojection takes place.Loop 14 and 12Pin-pan-pum. Espai 13, Fundacin Mir, Barcelona, 2003.


27/61

052 053


28/61

055054

MPI completely agree with the view that sel -absorbed art has become totally boring. Onseveral occasions Ive described it with caricature, as a kind o joke poetics whoseultimate aim is to ridicule the world o art itsel . As you said, theres hardly any o that inyour projects. Yet I do believe that irony plays a very important part in your work, at leastas a strategy to relax things, bring down expectations and put people in the right rameo mind or building an experience without too many prejudices.

LBI wont deny that there is irony there, but perhaps I fnd it hard to see because its such a part o theway I am that I cant draw ar enough away rom mysel to appreciate it. Its true that I do like playingdown the drama, so perhaps I use irony to st art o rom some basic level or, as you so aptly putit, bring down expectations, because then theres no limit marked out in advance or the observeras ar as interpretation is concerned and he can decide or himsel how ar he wants to go. Ironyis the frst step in helping to draw out o the spectator what he already knows. I see it as a kind oscreeching that puts us on guard and sharpens the senses in the ace o what were witnessing.I think its necessary to doubt the o bvious, even through distrust.


29/61

056 057

bicycleina ence is a bicycle in a ence. Artist at Glenfddich . Du town, 2006.


30/61

lampincar is an unlit streetlamp protruding out o a car with oneheadlight on in a car park. It is situated among other cars andstreetlamps.

Artist at Glenfddich . Du town, 2006.059


31/61

060 061

but scotch whiskyIn a warehouse among other barrels and brooms but scotch

whisky matures - a liquid that cannot be called Scotch whiskybecause it is a mixture (though only 1%+99%) o whiskies

rom two di erent distilleries (with the same owners, madeaccording to the same process and with the same ingredients,but 200 metres away rom each other) and because the barrelin which it is aging has a broom (made o the same wood as thebarrel) sticking through it.The rules or making what is regarded as Scotch whisky donot allow di erent distilled liquids to be mixed or the barrelto be inter ered with. This piece is there ore a joint e ort by acompany and an artist to ensure that a Scotch whisky cannotbe called by that name. While the other barrels increase in valuewith the passing o time, the uture o but scotch whisky isuncertain.

Artist at Glenfddich . Du town, 2006.


32/61

062 063

NilfskVsSiemmens consists o two vacuum cleaners sucking each others deposits in a closed circuit o vampirism. A ghtbetween two brands, a struggle between two di erent ways o doing the same thing.

Arco08 . Galera Moriarty, Madrid, 2008.


33/61

064 065

mismamente is two ways together o doing the same thing in a di erent way. Arco08 . Galera Moriarty, Madrid, 2008.


34/61

066 067

MPIm going to ask you another question rather directly. About the idea o tension. On theone hand, you have taut wires almost like the strings o a musical instrument, capableo giving sound to space... But what Id like to talk about is that idea o tension seen as aspeci c moment between two extremes. I mean, many o your pieces lie on the thin linebetween reality and representation ( Doubleroom , 2001; Retournage , 2002), representationand repetition ( Pinpanpum , 2003), attraction and repulsion ( Fuentedemieeerda , 2006)with no need or synthesis between them. I think its a very important issue. Whereasmodern thought tried to resolve contradictions dialectic ally, the contemporary paradigmdemands that the two extremes o paradox be kept open, with no solution. Youve o tensaid that when you play with two mutually antonymous notions, youre actually trying toget them to neutralise each other. I understand the idea but I think that youre actuallymore interested in seeing i contradictory extremes can be active in the same place andtime than in deactivating the notions you bring into play. Sorry, perhaps Im overstatingthings, but I think this mise-en-scne o the need to keep contradictions open like aparaphrase o the experience o contemporaneity is crucial.

LBTo a certain extent, holding those representations up by stretching them rom all the oppositeends o the room at the same time can be compared to a representation we could make othe world thats built and kept in tension thanks to all we think we know about it (and whosecaricature is what people call reality, which itsel is held up actively and militantly by thosewho coincide in it). When I said that the two extremes o contradiction are neutralised, I didntmean that they cancel each other out but that the coinciding in time and space o two oppo siteconcepts becomes something new and heterogeneous that brings and cements together thetwo opposites. 24

I live, eat and sleep contradiction.25 For me its not so much a question o a need to put up withit but to state it, make it more evident.

24 25


35/61

068 069


36/61

070 071

doubleroom is a drawing o all the objects on the walls o the room withshort distances between each model and its representation.Formas del exilio. Galera Carmen Claramunt, Barcelona, 2001.


37/61

072 073


38/61

074 075

retournage is a drawing and collage o the same roomback to ront, the representation and the model beingthe same size and occupying the same space.

Autorreverse . Art3, Valence, 2002.


39/61

076 077

crash is a light box that is li t and displays an image o its broken interior. Aqu o ahora y nunca . Galera Moriarty, Madrid, 2006.


40/61

078 079


41/61

080 081

MPIts signi cant how you pre er the tradition o suspicion as opposed to reality, and notonly rom the political point o view, which orces people to see through abrication but

rom an ontological point o view. On several occasions your installations have beeninterpreted as spectral gures, ghosts issuing rom the visible body o space. Accordingto this line o thought, any attempt to reveal opens up new concealments. This isparticularly obvious In Ssaammeetthhiinnggss (2007). The enigma is guarded inside anin nite process o revealing/concealment.

LBThe way the media builds reality is gradually turning it into a representation o itsel , a substitute

or itsel , and also spectral. All I do is give examples o this process. Id love to think that I wastrying to sabotage it, but I know my limits. At the most I try to give the spectator another chanceto look at the glimmers o the world that manage to squeeze through into persistent old reality. 26 This is also very evident in Pantallablanca (2001). The original colours o the room are coveredand are shown in the projection although at the same time the screen used or showing thecolours in the video hides the original ones. In order to show any representation o reality, itneeds to occupy a physical space which at the same time hides another. 27 You cant see themuseum or the pictures.

26 27


42/61

083

Ssaammeetthhiinnggss is two synchronized video projections, one rom an angle where workmen can be seen coveringeverything visible with similar objects, the other rom an angle showing the same objects repeated.4 30Ssaammee tthiinnggss. Museu Empord, Figueres, 2007.

Arco07 . Galera Moriarty, Madrid, 2007.Permanent Collection . Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina So a, Madrid, 2008.


43/61

084 085


44/61

086 087


45/61

088 089


46/61

090 091

Pantallablanca inside the magnetic house at an abandoned un air, isa projection showing all the space within the image being painted thenunpainted with white.loop 14 silentExperiencies, Ex-parc datraccions. Casa magntica. Barcelona, 2001.


47/61

092 093

MPDrawing. Its true to say that in spite o the volumetric dimensions o your projects, theseare actually drawings in space, whether with ropes (which were white at the beginningand ended up in colour), beams o light or lines o running water. I accentuated, this kindo drawing could lead to di erent e ects. The most important, i we keep to the truesttradition o what drawing means, would orce us to interpret your projects as mentalspaces, as disegno projecting an inner experience o a place onto real space.

LBOne o the main di erences between drawings and paintings is that drawings are o ten easierto fnish and remember. A drawing doesnt need to fll the whole space, it doesnt need to covera sur ace or re er to more than one idea. There ore something drawn is more easily extracted

rom a background, which hardly counts, and is there ore easier to think about. Drawings belongto the kind o images than are less o a drag on the computer and are there ore easier or theprocessor to cope with. 28 Its a bit like when only a ew instruments are playing: you understandthe music better, but you enjoy it less. La pittura una cosa mentale , sure, but drawing evenmore so. 29

I think that most o the drawing side o my work is due to trying, as I said be ore, to make a piececapable o being communicated. As my teachers used to say, Im not going to make an e ort tounderstand you; youre the ones who must make the e ort to express yourselves. With paintingI began to learn things and though that may not be obvious in my work, I owe it a lot.

28 29


48/61

094 095

MPAs were on the subject o your training period, let me ask you to go back over that a littlemore. It might seem banal to you, but I think your case is very interesting. People seemto have a kind o obsession to get into circles where their work can be promoted rightaway, but you were particularly slow about that.

LBTheres probably too much material there, enough or another conversation, but in a nutshell,I think when I fnished my fne arts studies I was scared and sort o paralysed through a atalcombination o shyness and arrogance, as well as eeling that I couldnt fnd any meaning in Artand that it was a particularly inhospitable feld. A ter several years o do ing nothing and turninginto a vegetable, I started working again because I realised that doing things was my way othinking about the world around me. I had this reverential respect or the spectator that made meso hard on mysel with my work - and other peoples too - that there was nothing, I didnt haveany work to show anybody. I took part in an exhibition by chance and since then Ive worked as

ast as the o ers have come in. I dont know i Id have been able to go any aster and now Imglad I didnt do everything that crossed my mind. My paths been slow because Ive never beenable to work or mysel - I depend solely on the direct results o my work - and to o set that I vetaken advantage o almost all the opportunities Ive had to do something new, although there area lot o pros and not a ew cons to that.


49/61

096 097

vallas are ballpoint pen drawings o a moti that is three-dimensional but almost fat and when placed together (at 90 0 ) delimita corner, so recovering part o the three-dimensionality they lost when they were drawn.

Arco02 . Galera Salvador Daz, Madrid, 2002. Javier Prez B. Luis Bisbe . Villa du Parc - Centre dArt Contemporain, Annemasse, 2004.


50/61

098 099


51/61

100 101

MPPisopiloto (2001) and now Interrorismo (2008), one o the new projects youve devisedespecially or this occasion, go back to the conventional models o ered by architectureto act as a setting to our lives. With Pisopiloto its the title that does that, but withInterrorismo the direction taken by that interpretation is much more explicit, as youdeconstruct a pre abricated house. In Moooooooore (2007) you also mentioned thegrowing standardisation that submits and disciplines li es worlds. On the reverse sideo the same issue, Mismamente (2008) dealt with how a same expectation or need canbe resolved with di erent solutions.

LBThe principle 30 o architecture is intimately linked to the invention o the di erence betweeninside and outside. 31 When the frst shack was built, the limits defning that separation wereset. Re uge has always been connected with protection, protection with ear, 32 ear with sa etyand sa ety with discipline and control. Breaking down those limits or at least questioning theirexcessive perseverance and suitability is somewhere I o ten return to with di erent tools. Isuppose I do that because I havent been able to make a single crack in them. Nevertheless,I keep on trying.Another milestone in architecture was when a fre was lit in the middle o a hut, suddenly turningit into a home. In modern-day houses, domestic energy has replaced fre and its task o givinglight and heat, and the idea behind Mismamente (2008) was to bring these two estrangedextremes back together again in the same piece.

30 31 32


52/61

102 103

MPThe two new projects ( Exterrorismo and Interrorismo ) are naturally complementary.Whereas the guardhouse is a re erence to the protocols o control, the pre abricatedhouse concentrates on the obedience growing out o that control. With their titles, thoseprocesses o governed li e identi y with the worst and most subtle orm o terrorism. Youdont need to be a documentary maker to channel such obviously political ideas.

LB33 What I said be ore about treasure can sometimes be applied to low-intensity terror, whichsometimes comes watered-down in the orm o charity and protection.34 Theres a similar themein The Seven Samurai , where the villagers end up exchanging terror o the criminals or terroro the protectors in a kind o vicious circle o submission. Ive always ound total collusionbetween ear and protection inadmissible. For the artist almost any tool is good/beauti ul i itachieves its purpose. Art in itsel has no theme. We look around in all directions and occasionallycoincide. Thats healthy, theres a choral touch to it. But each o us chooses his weapon orthe fght and I havent chosen the word. I eel that language overrules my message and placesexcessive limitations on me. I fnd it uncontrollable. I have every confdence in the potential othe visual, its an infnite feld. I never read very much at exhibitions, and when I do, I pre er to doit sitting down, and I hardly write. I know nobody will believe me.

33 34


53/61

104 105

MPYes, but let me just say... Despite the act that your work has given rise to you beingconsidered a workman who handles things and spaces, despite the act that youarrange your ideas apparently as you go along, and despite your aversion to language,the whole o your work is impregnated with premeditated purposes. Youre a worker-with-spaces, but ull o bad intentions, prepared to turn everything upside down andultimately that can only cause a sensation o uneasiness. The visual experience is not apoint o arrival but a trampoline with springs o language.

LBI understand and share what you probably mean by bad intentions, but I think those intentionsare actually good ones. In these circumstances, I pre er to eel uneasy rather than numb.Although the wel are society was achieved with a good deal o violence, Im still more in avour oa watered-down orm o infltration like they do than a head-on collision (although I must admitI can think o several examples contradicting that). Coarseness and vehemence can easily causea gut rejection in the unaccustomed spectator capable o preventing him rom approaching thework without preconceptions. Moving an object rom its normal place,35 upsetting the ordero things, tends to bring with it a new way o looking at that object,36 almost equivalent tochanging ones point o view, to shedding new light on a subject. And thats what its all about.O course I see the visual experience as a starting point or moving towards language, buttowards other experiences too. As I said be ore, my act ends when the doors open and thelights go on in the exhibition room. My shi t is over, now its up to whoever wants to look.

35 36


54/61

106 107


55/61

108 109

moooooooore is a ull circle o shopping trollies.Ssaammee tthiinnggss. Museu Empord, Figueres, 2007.Pensa, Piensa, Think . Centre dArt Santa Mnica, Barcelona, 2007.


56/61

110 111

exterrorismo was made by embedding the door and windows o a guardhouse in the walls o the exhibition room and lling theholes in the guardhouse with the pieces taken rom the walls. It is an exchange o unctions between the room and the hut.interiorismoyexteriorismo. La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2008.


57/61

112 113

interrorismo was made by dismantling a pre abricated house into di erent parts and cutting o pieces to assemble into a model.interiorismoyexteriorismo. La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2008.


58/61

114 115


59/61

116 117


60/61

Photographic credits

Cover and p. 108-115 Manuel Blancop. 12-13 Sergi Olivaresp. 14-15 Antonio Za ra, courtesy Galera Salvador Dazp. 20-23 Vicente del Amop. 24-25 Juande Jarillop. 34-35 Boris Nordmannp. 42-43 Juande Jarillop. 46-47 Adol Alcaizp. 52-55 Pere Pratdesaba, courtesy Funcaci Miro, Barcelonap. 60-61 John Paul, courtesy Glenfddichp. 66-67 Juande Jarillop. 70-73 Sever Ugartep. 74-76 Catherine Savary, courtesy Art-3p. 80-81 Xavier Galp. 88-89 Pep Herrero, courtesy ICUBp. 90 Seber Ugarte

p. 90 Courtesy ICUBp. 96-99 Alex Puyol, courtesy Galera Moriartyp. 106-107 Juande Jarillo

General Manager o Obra Social Caja MadridCarmen Contreras Gmez Director o La Casa EncendidaJos Guirao Cabrera Cultural Area CoordinatorLuca Casani Fraile Exhibition CoordinationYara Sonseca MasMara Nieto GarcaVanessa Casas Calvo

Luis Bisbeinteriorismoyexteriorismo

Exhibition

InstallationNatur HomeStuycoJavier Velasco

Catalogue

TextsLuis BisbeMart Pern

Designbisdixit.com

TranslationsPolisemia S.L.Nigel Williams

Printed byV.A. Impresores, S.A. www.luisbisbe.com Luis Bisbe. VEGAP, Madrid the edition: La Casa Encendida the texts: the authors the photographs: the authors ISBN: 978-84-96917-32-3Depsito legal:

Luis Bisbe and La Casa Encendida would like to ack-nowledge the trust, assistance, support and dedicationo the ollowing people, without whom this book and theexhibition would not have been possible.

Acknowledgments

Juande JarilloFundaci Joan Mir, BarcelonaIgnacio CabreroYara SonsecaSergi OlivaresSusana OliverosAdol AlcaizCristina RodriguezJorge BravoAlberto RomeroManuel EspaaXavier GalJuancarlos EscuderoOriol FontMireia MassManuel Saiz

Guillem BayoYamand CanosaMara A. de la FuenteCarmen RoblesJavier PerezJose Javier AguileraFerran LoboJoana CeraAlberto PeralSera n RodriguezAlex Posadas


61/61

Luis Bisbe Catalog (en)

Documents

Transcript of Luis Bisbe Catalog (en)