El primer fuego is an exhibition that replicates the material and relational ecosystem that has emerged at Jose Dávila’s studio throughout several years of constant and continuous production. Taking advantage of the geographical proximity between the studio and the exhibition space, the gallery has been transformed into a work space and functions as a reflection of the procedures that precede the consolidation of Dávila’s sculptural work.
The exhibition presents different moments that take place between the selection of raw materials and the conclusion of sculptural objects. This highlights the importance of the interrelation between objects which is channelized by the artist in order to generate structural systems of dependence. This sort of objectual reliance is characterized by the borrowing and exchange of qualities between contrasting materials in order to assure a certain degree of balance and permanence. The creation of these hybrid circuits implies a cyclical understanding of the transformation of...matter. A fluctuating motion between self-preservation and disintegration.
The central piece within the exhibition represents a return to an early work by Dávila which was exhibited in 1999 at the Museo de las Artes de Guadalajara. The recreation of this work involves a small bonfire which is lighted intermittently inside the gallery space, the fire is surrounded by piles of logs witnessing the ignition process and awaiting as potential fuel. The metal tray that works as a platform for activating the bonfire operates as a liminal space where matter is forced to undergo a transformation process. Dávila’s minimal gesture presents fire as an autonomous symbol, referencing the notion of origin and the primitive; this sort of raw energy is able to reconfigure the reality of things and unveil the internal dynamics that are concealed within objects.
As a prelude, the bonfire is preceded by a couple of sculptures that work as mirrored counterweights. A raw stone is fastened to an industrial pulley which is fixed to the ceiling; this heavy object is faced by an apple made of bronze which remains suspended in the air. These two elements are part of Dávila’s recurring sculptural vocabulary; the apple is a recognizable reminder of the effects of the force of gravity. These compositional formats are continued in the next room where a group of metal barrels are affixed to the wall, making a pyramidal shape. The sequence of works generates a tangible rhythm that suggest the prevalence of a certain order. The ratchet straps, cables and chains that Dávila uses to connect objects function as forms of mediation and construct a structural itinerary. The trajectories between objects reconfigure the spatial experience of the gallery, dialoguing with its architectural disposition, modifying and dislocating the displacement dynamics that take place there.
The intuition of a certain order is interrupted abruptly by a chaotic accumulation of raw materials in the adjacent rooms. Concrete volumes, rocks, marble slabs, acrylic plates, fragments of wood and other construction materials occupy the entire room. This installation is a glance at the objects that inhabit the studio; and it is also a draft of Dávila’s work ethic that is characterized by the intuition of a series of possible interactions between objects. Since most of these objects are normally used as construction elements, these implies the suggestion of practical associations. Dávila does not reduces the interaction between objects to these practical terms, rather he is inclined to intertwine these elements through a poetic resonance that could attribute them with autonomy. The coexistence of these lithic bodies and industrial objects in the studio is what enables the appearance of these possible connections that are characterized to be more organic rather than an imposition from a predetermined conception of the sculptural. The circulation of these material presences in the exhibition culminates with a work that shows a tilted metallic cabinet being balanced out by a mound of coal. The relation between both objects arises as something mainly chromatic, adding a pictorial dimension to the sculptural object, but it also highlights the cyclic configuration of the whole exhibition: a circle that unfolds into itself towards infinity, intermittently raging from the human, constructed world to the unaltered configuration of raw matter.
Jose Dávila (1974. Guadalajara, Mexico)
Jose Dávila’s work originates from the symbolic languages that function within art history and Western visual culture. These pictorial, graphic and sculptural languages are reconfigured as contradictory and contrasting relations, taking the correspondence between form and content to its limit. The artist represents these oppositions through different perspectives: the association between images and words; the structural disposition of materials which entails the possibility of a harmonious balance or disarray; the use of peripheral routes in order to define architectural space and the presence of objects. Dávila’s work is essentially a multidisciplinary endeavor that presents a series of material and visual aporias, these paradoxes permit the coexistence of frailty and resistance, rest and tension, geometric order and random chaos. Dávila’s sculptural work is based on the specificity of the employed materials, their origin, symbolic value and their formal characteristics are elements that take great significance; industrial materials interact with organic raw materials.
His work has been exhibited at Museo del Novecento, Firenze, IT; Gropius Bau, Berlin, DE; Getty Foundation PST LA/LA Triennial, Los Angeles, USA; Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona, SP; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, DE; Marfa Contemporary, Marfa, USA; Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, USA; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, NL; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, NL; Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo MUAC, Mexico City, MX; Caixa Forum, Madrid, SP; MoMA PS1, New York, USA; Kunstwerke, Berlin, DE; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, SP; MAK, Vienna, AT; Fundación/Colección JUMEX, Mexico City, MX; Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA; Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, BR; among others.
His work is part of international public and private collections such as Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, SP; Inhotim Collection, Brumadinho, BR; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburgo, DE, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, US, among others.
Jose Dávila has been awarded with the 2017 Baltic Artists’ Award in the UK and is a 2016 Honoree of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, USA. He has received scholarships and funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, MX.
Temporarily closed due to Covid19: Pensar como una montaña at Museo Amparo de Puebla, MX and Directional Energies, curated by Pedro Alonzo at Dallas Contemporary, US. In 2020 he will open a solo show at Centro Internazionale di Scultura in Peccia, CH.
The artist lives and works in Guadalajara, MX.
Entrada actualizada el el 14 ago de 2020
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