Projects and CValexmarcoinfo@gmail.com
Álex Marco (Valencia,1986) is a visual artist. His artistic practice revolves around video essay, installation and painting; disciplines he uses to reinterpret the city and surroundings, perceiving both as mediums that can be altered by pictorial habits, constructions and modifications in space through determination. His work represents and connects with consequences of the most essential social attitudes, on how to inhabit the spaces and waste left behind, such as fluids, spills, even stains, lines or drawings that close to being invisible, coexist permanently.
The discredit of reality, 2022. Group show at EACC Castelló, curated by Paula Lorenzo and Carles A. Saurí.During the 1950s, the Valencian thinker Joan Fuster wrote an essay entitled “The Discredit of Reality”. An essay made up of brief looks at different moments in the history of Western art with a desire to understand the relationship between the trends of Western painting and reality. It contains artistic reflections, philosophical thoughts, observations on social habits and religious doctrines. Through small texts, the essay constructs a reading of Western art as a space of response to the aesthetic-political constructs that underpin what society perceives as reality. Reality is thus perceived as Gramsci understood hegemony. And Discredit, then, is the questioning of hegemony and the search for its flaws for the production of an object or critical thought. This exhibition is an invitation to a series of artists and collectives of contemporary thought and creation to discredit the institution and its tangible and symbolic materials. Based on two types of invitation, a dialogue was opened between the curators, the artists, the invited collectives and the materials and bodies of the EACC. The participants in the process could put in relation, in the exhibition space, an already existing object or action. Or they could work with a material, body or object from the art center’s stores, archives, structure or human resources.
Reforma, 2022. Site-specific installation, composed with elements from the Museum itself, previously used in other exhibitions. Wood, iron, CCTV cameras and broadcast monitors. Variable measures.
Personal and custom document with selected frames from the cameras.
Tiempo produce pintura–pintura produce tiempo. Solo show at E CA El castell, curated by Mariano Mayer. (Riba-roja del Túria, Valencia). Through the languages of art, such as painting, collage or film, images emerge from the work of Álex Marco. Paying attention as much to construction as to discovery, none of the images pre-exist the known world. Nevertheless, once produced, they establish structures of continuity between form, gesture and the world. His ways of creating bring together analogue instruments and processes capable of producing moving images. Álex Marco turns to the visual library of the 20th century, especially those periods where the results of kinetic experimentation seemed to continue the formal exploration that characterised abstract painting.
The artist re-examines the capability held by certain procedures for distortion of video signals to create visually autonomous forms. This aesthetic, deliberately analogue, turns the eye into a selector of abstract constellations. In Tiempo produce pintura – pintura produce tiempo (“Time produces painting - painting produces time”) the moving images offer still moments where the forms containing colour appear to emerge for the first time.
The shape of time II by LOOP Barcelona. Here, the video essay works as a tool to manipulate the spectactor's visual experience. The monitor acts as a sculpture, the video is not a critique or have an informative purpose, but is a part of the creative process. Free, surprising and suitable for experimentation.The Box and Resets are inspired by the Early Video Essay, a very early audiovisual stream embarked upon through practical research into the works of Peer Bode, Joan Jonas, Lynda Benglis or Vasulkas Inc, among others. All of whom displace reality, developing a rupture in the image by means of processes and narratives based around illusion and alteration of what we are witnessing.Contemplating various different interpretations, the pieces presented here correspond to the relationship between time and form by means of an almost pictorial aesthetic. By using the monitor as a virgin, pristine médium to "be developed", the end result we see is no more than the vertical and horizontal lines of the CRT, that have been modified by the electrical currents which represent the information displayed on the screen itself.
Resets (2021), here the synthesiser takes over the modified signal in a process very similar to painting. In this case, an oscillator-voltage control emits temporary repetitive sequences over the signal, which enable the composition of the image as if it were on a blank canvas. As a result, the electronic image is deformed into an abstract inspired pictorial landscape.Videosynthesis process,2 channels (loop), 4:3 analog video, (04:24)Black and white, mute sound.Video links:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUZePysYWr4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w78km-ifFzU
The Box (2021), is a small cine projection room integrated inside the monitor itself. Synthesised and sketched out with a digital programme, this virtual space offers the spectator a space where they can place themselves inside the medium. And in the same way, envelopes the projection of the moving image and constructs a bond between projection-spectator.Videosynthesis process and digital drawing,4:3 analog video, (02:41)Black and white, stereo sound.
Un suceso inesperado, 2021. Curated by Aurélien Le Genissel at Centro Párraga.
Somehow or another, every exhibition is no more than the trail, the remains, the result of accidental actions, the echo of unforeseen decisions. Un suceso inesperado (An unexpected incident) is no exception. These pieces extend this potential for the unexpected, the reality of possibilities in other significant sites such as the artist's own studio or workshop or the urban framework in which we all live. A functionality, halfway between utilitarian and sterile, which analyses the relationship between the creative processes which emanate from the urban setting with the experience of cohabitation in the actual site of creation.
This work is no more (and no less) than a deep phenomenological investigation into the creative process through the everyday materials used and shared, such as fabric, cement, wax, iron, wood or enamel, whose uncertain availability opens up the possibility of a visual analysis of their social use and what we use them for and the way in which we inhabit the city. Also a reflection on the actual incident – which happens while we explore the possible conditions of that event – the fragile balance between the unpredictable and the calculated, which we find at the heart of this exhibition in a series of pieces whose realisation produces a meandering between chance and technique.
As Stéphane Mallarmé would say, Un suceso inesperado presents itself as pure medium. A place from which anything is possible, a space where the unexpected happens (Process link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBbBPEAvfxQ&feature=youtu.be) – which is perhaps no more than another name for an incident –, time suspended between desire and fulfilment, enactment and remembrance, that false appearance of the present time which the French poet speaks of and which we seem to have lived in recent times. Text by Aurélien le Genissel. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM5fI-u8q7U&t=23s
An open and uninhabitable shelter is a site-specific project to be exhibited in the street. It will remain outside for the duration of the Miquel Navarro´s Biennial Sculpture Event 2020 (Mislata), and will reflect the imprint of its surroundings. The piece acquires its function from its botanical environment because the plants, which the neighbourhood residents place there will inhabit the sculpture as if it were a greenhouse. The marks and imprints, left by watering, earth, compost, and actions, will be added and recorded and will gradually modify the state of the object during its time outdoors.
Refugio abierto e inhabitable, 2020. Iron, polycarbonate and enamel, 200x135x300cm.
Forget concrete! Now is the time for living things. 2020, Produced in the Chalet "Les Alisiers", von Schulthess Collection residency program, Switzerland.
Now is the time for things that have a life of their own. Everything around us seems to have changed considerably and the climate has gone through four different seasons throughout the day. The early morning air feeds the earth, with new fruits emerging that yesterday at this same time were not there. In fact, everything appears to have slowly moved a few centimetres from its original location. The fallen leaves have moved as well as the small rocks and stones around them.
Has something happened while we were asleep? Everything seems to be a clone of its original self, but it is a different place each day. And so, that branch leaning against the log shed, and the tree was not there yesterday, and the speed at which the first mushrooms sprout from the ground seems to be science fiction. It seems that nothing is fixed here, at least not like concrete. The animals become active in the very early hours of the morning, and become masters of the night proving that you do not control this place. The house speaks and the wood of its robust and interesting construction seems to want to say: "hey, I am also moving!, will I appear a few centimetres further north tomorrow morning?"There is something outside that I am missing and everything seems in movement, changing and in constant evolution. If we take a small part of these elements, will they continue evolving in a different and far away location? If everything on the surface changes, what happens underground? The level of activity in our field of view sometimes leads us to believe that below the surface everything is static and hermetic, as if nothing were happening, as if everything were safe. If an object becomes buried in the humid and alive earth, will it continue its progression, and if so, what will it look like after one month?
Forget concrete! Now is the time for living things is a response to all these questions. The project is based on the daily coexistence with the natural habitat surrounding the country house Les Alisiers in southern Switzerland (Les Mayens-de-Sion, Canton of Valais) during the months August to October. The artistic activity undertaken represents the unique identity of the location by means of a collection of drawings, sketches, paintings, objects and actions which present a portrait of this experience.
In a way, the work produced has also evolved progressively, changing throughout the process and imitating the features of its surroundings, which were its companions. Consequently the pieces presented have indirectly mimicked the mood as the days have passed, as in the illustrated diary of drawings and paintings; and also on the other hand directly, as in the bird houses and small minimalist architectures buried underground, producing their own gardens on the surface.
Lo que pasa en el parque, se queda en el parque (What happens in the park, stays in the park), 2020. Enamel, vinyl, chewing gums, spray painting, crayons and markers. Site–specific project at IVAM, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia.
What happens in the park, stays in the park is a pictorial installation which develops directly in the installation space. It invites the visitor to live with, and participate in, the painting, altering its state through the duration and their transit through the space. This can take the form of observation, walking on it, spoiling it, or simply leaving on it their own footprints and marks.The project is centred around a personal graphic inscription about the IVAM environment itself, using as references a collection of drawings and scraps, reflected in this case against the ground of the garden behind the museum itself. A long look at the ground reveals forgotten and lost gestures and actions which reveal the city as a visual support and also its diverse capability as a living space.
Minimal Lockdown, 2020. EP digital album and video session. This proposal consists of a six-part playlist, each piece accompanied by their respective video, which in combination generate a sensory and audio-visual experience through a minimalist medium of ambience, synth, noise and trance.
Video A
Video B
Video C
Video D
Video E
Video F
On the one hand, the sound tracks are available via Bandcamp, by way of a digital EP format album. On the other hand, the video clips (together with the sound of each one of the tracks) are reproduced via YouTube, and illustrate fully the songs and the sound experience. All of the content is available to play and download on both platforms via public weblink, and free of charge. The songs are self-produced, recorded and mastered through analogue synthesizers, while the visual sections are produced in multiple formats: HD, VHS, Super-8 and 16mm film. The video section as well as the sound have been expressly developed for this precise invitation for applications.
The pieces in this project proposal represent an abstract context outside of the constraints of time and space. From start to finish (17'0''), the pieces describe different ambiences which produce varying sensations, each one subject to each spectator and listener's interpretation, and for each one holds them momentarily detached and elevated from their surroundings.
Bag, 2020. Broadcasting monitor, rack holder, wood, polystyrene, cardboard conservation museum, polyurethane foam and VHS Video tape, 4:3 NTSC system, 13´13´´, stereo sound. Video link
Isla de Ons landscapes, 2019-2020. Oil marker on notebook paper, 21x13cm. (each)
Screensaver, 2020 (loop). Basic animation on CCTV monitor, black and white, mute sound, 4:3 Video link
Mulholland Drive. Solo show, 2019
This exhibition covers the four floors of the gallery (Luis Adelantado Valencia), forming a route along which we must proceed blindly, following the spatial logic of the marks scattered on the surfaces. As if it were an archelogical dig, the viewer must glide between fossils of motions and emotions which comprise the show, marks on the cracked tarmac of a road, tar and skateboard skids produced by contact with the surface of the canvas all perform as if they were embodied shadows, making visible the intent which is hidden in each gesture, like a footprint where time is imprinted by the contact that the image provokes. This tactile reading of the surfaces transforms the floor, canvas and screen into a constant exploration where the act of painting becomes the principal driving force as if it were supplying a certain order. That said, the images form inscriptions to the same degree of language in which the accumulated grime, flaws and paint marks, serve to consolidate the complex memory process which is hidden in every gesture. Text by Blanca Crovetto.
Prototype of a precarious space (two white cubes with a drawing), 2020. At La nit del foc group exhibition. La Vicaría room, Puente de Génave (Jaén, Spain). Polystyrene, enamel, conservation cardboard museum, polyurethane foam, ink and wood.
Down on the street (part 1), 2018-2020. Skateboarding marks on linen, 195x130cm. Video documentary. Video 8mm, VHS tape, PAL video system 4:3, 8´30´´. Video link
Out of control: trying to place a cat, 2019.Experimental exercise about repetition, inaccuracy and freedom. VHS video tape, PAL system 4:3, 2'56'', stereo sound. Video link
Inventory 2, 2017-2018. Objects, masks and urban landscapes from Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta.
Esto está pasando, 2017. Solo show at Luis Adelantado Mexico.
Video painting!, 2018-2019. Black ink and markers on 8mm film reel, colored film,VHS video tape and Super-8 film, PAL system 4:3, 0´37´´, Stereo sound. Video link
Environment 1, 2019. VHS video tape, PAL system 4:3, 1'20'', Stereo sound. Video link
Inventory 1, 2016. Xylography and spray on paper, 21x14cm.Edition: 40 prints/side A. 40 prints/ side B Xylography in Technogoma. Workshop assistant: Manuel Blázquez
El cuenco roto, 2019. Solo show at La Vicaría. Puente de Génave, Jaén.
To let the bowl fall and spill its contents. A test of the painter's capacity for representation regarding his vision of his environment. The bowl breaks, all the contents are spilt, and everything is liberated. These are all ideas and thoughts. Stories which involve the pictorial genre from a contemporary perspective, such as still life, sculpture, the human form and landscapes. More or less day-to-day life. Eating. Music. The connection of common references between all of the above. A place where images refer in some measure to everything, but especially to painting.
Photographs: Untitled, 2019. 35mm, Portra 400/ColorPlus. Camera Cosina Hi-Lite 205 and Olympus MJU-1.Paintings: Untitled (All of them), 2017-2018-2019. Ink, enamel and oil on diferent sized canvases, paper, support media, 33x24cm, 27x19cm, 180x120cm.Drawings: Untitled, 2018. Ink on paper satin grain Arches, 300gr. 66x51cm.
Michaux´s writings. 2018. Paintings from the Henri Michaux´s book Writings about painting.
The subject image lacks any specific meaning, there is no focus. It is a visual idea, an excuse to promote the painting itself as the main character of the artwork. Dialogue between the text, lines and stains.
The work is an exercise in pictorial simplification, clear and concise, which addresses the contribution of black to the dialogue and the diffusion of the shape on the raw surface of the canvas. The edges of each piece form an infinite space where the shape recochets indefinitely, propelling unlimited symbolic expansion. A structured visual line is provided by the degradation of the image. Like a spinal column where the pieces support each other with a beginning and an end, where the preceding pieces are necessary for the following pieces, and the final pieces are necessary for the preceding ones.
The investigation emphasises a benchmark capable of transforming towards new channels of representation through the primitive and basic application of paint. The work questions pictorial flexibility by means of graphic reflections on the play between ink and writing. The pieces represent a commitment to painting, the drawn line, and the mark, comparing the gesture and process to that of writing, language and oriental visual arts cìphers.
La hora loca de los gatos. 2015. Solo show at Luis Adelantado Valencia (Boiler room project).
We have all heard about the sudden madness that cats experience in the short period before sunset. There is a common point in all the hypotheses regarding this behaviour. It is the time at which the animal comes out of its inactivity, prepares for its maximum moment of lucidity and its predatory hunting instincts awaken.
Thus, my work’s methodological process is based on the same premise: I deprive myself of usual mechanics and reason, to become imbued in a random sequence of elements. Suddenly, my subconscious awakens as in “the crazy time”, giving way to a moment of maximum lucidity.Stains leave behind evidence, exercises and formal trickery, slowly tracing the path through which they divert until the end of the painting, sometimes more figurative and others seemingly more abstract. The pieces presented weave a foundation of pictorial beds on the basis of stains, lines and scribbles, often leaving aside specific meanings, as they sometimes interfere with the reading of the pictorial construction. The pictorial action confronts allusive images, challenging its robustness upon the base, painted objects, ellipsis of subjects through extensive beds of colored surfaces, where painting envelops the picture, leaving sometimes a final pseudo-sculptural piece, creating an iconographic ecosystem that conveys classic traditions which have been corrupted by contemporary codes.
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