Curator: Aramis López
Opening: Thursday 27 March 2014, at 7.30 pm.

La Virreina Image Centre presents an exhibition by Alex Francès, an artist who has been working for two decades in the pursuit of artwork which talks about the meaning and function of the image in relation to the body. The works in this exhibition, curated by Aramis López, are created essentially with the blind in mind; works in which the way of looking is not the captive of the sense of sight. They are works that encourage cognitive mapping, they are works created for the intellect.

Alex Francés is an artist who has been working for two decades in the pursuit of artwork which talks about the meaning and function of the image in relation to the body. He uses a number of representation techniques ranging from drawing, sculpture and photography to video and installation.

The works in this exhibition by Alex Francés are created essentially with the blind in mind; works in which the way of looking is not the captive of the sense of sight. They are works that encourage cognitive mapping, they are works created for the intellect.

Based on a small drawing done with points in 1990, Alex Francés made an embroidered figure (El banquete, 2012). It was the beginning of a series in which he started to deal with the contour and silhouettes of the human body. He continues to produce works using traditional crafts (crochet) and has started making in principle shapeless objects, reminiscent of internal bodily organs, hitherto nameless organs which perform necessary but unknown functions, which are parts of his body, or rather which are the parts which make it possible to talk about his body.

In this new stage it is not just a question of referring to his body but also developing a body based on objects-images-organs. It is not creating a human being by moulding; his work of weaving a body is more like creating a dictionary, a thesaurus of functions of the individual and its organs. In this case the artist’s work is not limited to creating objects-images-organs as he also draws up grammatical rules for creating sentences using images as words.

The objects-images-organs are grouped into three body-part-works; each one is the parts that make up a body:

In 8 cos enganxat they would be something akin to the organs inside the body; they perform assigned functions, blood purification or digestive functions, but in an image body they are organs defined by the viewer’s way of looking.

Negro refers to a support for the body, a skeleton,  which brings together the body and marks it from within its confines; it is the hard part of the body. The skeleton is the part of the body that will last longest when the body has no life.

Armadura delimits the body, protects it, makes it visible and enables its social insertion. In Alex Francés’s framework every part making it up is one of the functions and virtues of a body but without the body itself.

Eight is a record of the relationships that objects-images-organs have with their viewers. It is an experience that to date has only three chapters: Núria, Ricard and Vicens. Three blind people, two of them from birth, who during a conversation with Alex Francés are given objects belonging to each of the parts by him and they talk about them.

Yet this artistic proposal seeks to expand or narrow the definition of image by talking about it, and by talking about it with people who build their images very differently, talking and looking with the blind.

Art indicates what the mind perceives; we would not be able to recognise beauty if art had not marked it for us.