1. Of the sculptural work confronting the divagations of language.
Could things stop being things? Does the object know that it is an object while things know they are things? What do electronic appliances feel when they are being unplugged? Can objects regenerate like living organisms? Could objects survive men, eternally and definitely? One necessarily has to ask those questions when analysing the work BATALLA ESPACIAL (Spatial Battle).
2. Of the artist’s universe.
But what is the universe of Ales Villegas in her Batalla Espacial? The work presents itself as a tour, composed by an accumulation of things and objects or “object projects”, referred to as “embryos” by the artist, and which “take” spaces or compounds, just like spores, fungi or mental viruses, and thereby obliging the visitor / explorer to traverse the gallery. Each visitor is obliged to lose him- or herself in the labyrinths of memory. Therefore it is an exercise of memory and forgetting, of spatial divisions and perceptions. This is where the title of the exhibition originates, as the individual is submitted to a veritable battle. Human objects are confronted by a fight for survival.
3. Of proto-objects and the anatomy of things.
What type of monsters are we talking about? Like formerly Andrés Vesalio, anatomist of the empire, who in his work dealt with the realisation of a terminated study of the human body, Ales Villegas does the same concerning object-embryos, proto-objects and – utilising the patience of an anatomist for objects – unites, replicates and studies them, and – just like her renaissance predecessor were astonished when the first explored the human body - Ales Villegas does the same in her Batalla Espacial. Ales Villegas does science of a science that does not exist.
The work emphasises the importance of dissections and could be called an “anatomic” vision of the body of things and sculptures that regenerates like a living being and grows into different parts of its territory – in this case in the gallery Die Ecke. Nevertheless, the most stunning detail is, that this monster is made of papier mâché. Why this material? It might be because the objects and models are tired of their materiality, the utility and their purchase / sale dimension, and have decided to mutate into an evolutionary species exempt from the motivations and intentions they were designed for.
The work emphasises the importance of dissections and could be called an “anatomic” vision of the body of things and sculptures that regenerates like a living being and grows into different parts of its territory – in this case in the gallery Die Ecke. Nevertheless, the most stunning detail is, that this monster is made of papier mâché. Why this material? It might be because the objects and models are tired of their materiality, the utility and their purchase / sale dimension, and have decided to mutate into an evolutionary species exempt from the motivations and intentions they were designed for.
4. Of human mutations and the survival of objects.
Could objects survive men, eternally and definitely? The Batalla Espacial presents itself as multiverse. The universe does not exist as such. In this work, there is not one but various worlds, multiple views; hence there exist multiple possible journeys to traverse it. This obliges the individual to mutate, and to cease being the way it was. In order to cross the universe physically and mentally, it has to divide. Just as proto-zoos, human beings need to divide themselves into similar beings, mutate and maybe thereby find the only possibility to fight against this mental monster. It is a monster of proto-objects for neo-humans.
Nevertheless, Ales Villegas states that even those who have divided will lose in the Batalla Espacial.
Nevertheless, Ales Villegas states that even those who have divided will lose in the Batalla Espacial.
