Marcel.lí Antúnez

Antúnez, one of the most unsettling and multifaceted artists currently working in the artworld , creates a space for in-depth reflection on the relationships between human beings and the worlds of biology (bacterias), technology (prosthesis, interactivity), culture (languages) and mythology (fiction and fantasy.) The title of the exhibition highlights precisely the ideas of origin, renewal and revelation.The curator of the exhibit is Media Art author and theorist Claudia Giannetti.

Bacteria, Robots, Sculptures and Images

Agar, Réquiem, Alfabeto and Capricho, the four installations that make up this exhibition, constitute an important step forward in the work of creative investigation and this time with spectacular results. Working with interactive systems, the artist invites the public to actively participate in the development and the transformation of the works thus characterising them as a process in continual development. Having passed through the biological world (Agar), the technological world (Requiem) and cultural world (Alfabeto), the final point of the journey takes the visitor to a mythological environment of fantasy and fiction.
The title is a clear reference to the work of Goya and plays on the idea of the creation of fantastical creatures present in the form of sculptures (three figures of an anthropomorphic character) and audiovisual images (projected into big screen). Breaking the taboo that the public must not touch works of art, it is precisely the direct interaction between the visitors and the figures that generates a series of different images.

Alfabeto is about language and sound and can be activated, combined or distorted by the public through a basic sensorial dialogue which takes place between the visitor, using gestures, and the art itself which transmit its "states of animation" using itself the sound of human voices: sounds of desperation, anxiety. pleasure, joy...

Réquiem, a captivating pneumatic robot, reacts to the presence and movements of the public around it. The machine, part sculpture, part prosthesis, and part robot is an ironic reflection of immortality: within it's interior it can contain and animate an inert human body.

In Agar, the cultivation of different types of real bacterias generating vitality which the nucleus of the installations allows the artist to create a piece of work which is subject to continual evolution.

Capricho on the other hand, whilst focusing on the interactive tactile communication that the public can have with the piece also transgresses into the field of audiovisuals.

Short Biography on Marcel.lí Antúnez
Marcel.lí Antúnez was born in Moía (Barcelona) in 1959. He began his artistic career as a founding member of the group La Fura dels Baus (1979) whilst studying Fine Art at the University of Barcelona. With this performance art company he has performed on every continent and has won a multitude of national and international prizes. He has also been co-founder of a variety of contemporary theater companies, musical and performance art such as Los Rinos Art Total Group (from 1985) or El Artificio (1991-92) as well as exploring many other creative environments (editing, music, cinema and video).
He has exhibited in a number of countries, the most prominent exhibition being La vida sin amor no tiene sentido (Live without love makes no sense, 1983) consisting of sculptures and machines made from pork. In his robot Joan L´home de carn (1992), created together with Sergi Jorda, he incorporated interactive elements into his works for the first time, a detail that he would later intensify in the performance Epizoo (1994), performed in over fifty five cities around the world. His latest work, Afasia, an interactive multimedia performance first shown in 1998 at the National Theater of Catalunya of Barcelona combines elements of music, robots and electronics. Building a narrative hypertext around the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, Antúnez develops in this work an audiovisual and scenic rite whose central axis is the concept of travel, ranging from the mythic journey to the virtual topographies of the current digital era.

Notes on the curator Claudia Giannetti

Claudia Giannetti is a specialist in Media Art, curator of exhibitions and cultural events, author and theorist. She is Director of a number of associations which include Associació de Cultura Contemporàneia L’Angelot, in Barcelona, and the MECAD / Media Centre d’Art y Disseny, and Director of Electronic Art and Digital Design in the Escola Superior de Disseny ESDI, Sabadell-Barcelona. Amongst her latest publications her most prominent books have been Media Culture (Barcelona, 1995), Arte en la Era Electrónica – Perspectivas de una Nueva Estética (Art in the electronic age - perspectives on a new aesthetic, Barcelona, 1997), Ars Telemática – Telecomunication, Internet y Cyberspace (Lisbon, 1998; Barcelona, 1998). She is also Director of the MECAD Electronic Journal, an online magazine about art, science and technology (http://www.mecad.org/e-journal).

Program of additional activities

- Performance art by Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca which includes a concert of instrumental and musical robots. October 6 at 19:30h located in the Telefonica Foundation.
- Guided visits by the artists and by the curator: september 16, october 5 and november 2.
- Presentation of the multimedia performance Afasia by Marcel.lí Antúnez. November 4, 5 and 6 at the French Institute - Festival de Otoño (Autumn Festival).

Information about dates and times: Angeles Pérez, Tel. 91 584 2305

Information: Obdulio Martin Bernal ( e-m: obdulio.martinbernal@telefonica.es ; tel. 915848996)
Carmen Mañueco (e-m: carmen.manuecogrinda@telefonica.es ; tel. 915840424)

Epifanía
Marcel.lí Antúnez

Exhibition

Cathalog

Epifanía Marcel.lí Antúnez

Exhibition

Cathalog

Epifanía
Marcel.lí Antúnez