'dialogue, murmur, light..' presents a micro-world, inviting us to attend the basic classroom where we learn to sharpen our perception of the smallest things, the transparent ones: the world of particles, of atoms.
Curated by Mª Belén Sáez de Ibarra
“There is always, a child, a bird to secretly perceive the secret. There is always a perception finer than yours, a perception of your imperceptible,
of what is in your box”
(Deleuze and Guattari)
Nicolás Paris presents to us here a micro-world, inviting us to attend the basic—I mean the essential—classroom
where we learn to sharpen our perception of the smallest things, the transparent ones: the world of particles, of
atoms. We are going to work with rock powder, tiny seeds, a bird that is yet to arrive, ordinary flour, a little more of
white, motion and stillness of light: speed and slowness of the flow of the living that becomes imperceptible in the
abstract machine that produces it.
This is how we are in a skholé 1 for perceiving the imperceptible (like that barely visible mark on the cloth that
received the kneaded dough) where along with Nicolás Paris we experience an aesthetics of the lightness that
eliminates what stands out too much, what is too showy, pursuing to blend in with the walls, with the floor, with the
windows, with the sands of the street, and breathe in the anonymous work of the neighbouring bakery.
In this classroom we can have the experience of attending a laboratory of recipes for ridding ourselves of excesses,
in order to become creative dust, particles of a world where elimination draws itself in an abstract line, or in a puzzle
piece that is abstract. And conjugating, continuing with other lines, other pieces, one creates a world, which could
cover the former, as in transparency.
A homage to the occupation of creating, omitting the meaning and the proper name to which one is reduced, to
enable us to circulate among things, to concentrate desire on the perception of the secret.
Ma Belén Sáez de Ibarra
This project has been especially conceived for the Elba Benítez space in Madrid, where the artist Nicolás Paris,
accompanied by the curatorship of Ma Belén Sáez de Ibarra, will be working to produce the pieces that will give rise
to a laboratory-observation classroom where the imperceptible is the secret formula of the living that is undergoing
constant transformation.
Nicolás Paris thus refers to the project dialogue, murmur, light, hours or (a place to contemplate de transformation):
“Everyday perception is variable. It depends on light, sound, encounter, time, rust and air. From nothing, from the
hyper minimum, events are generated. The immateriality of these phenomena is unpredictable and tends toward the
fluid and unstable. Beyond the physical, our relation to the environment is deeper, we generate intrinsic relations
with invisible things that lend a particular form to our experience, experiences that build environments of dialogue
and exchange.”
Throughout his substantial career Nicolás Paris (Colombia, 1977) has been recipient of scholarships and residencies
in Latin America, Europe and the United States. His work has been acquired for international collections such as
those of the MUSAC of Leon, Spain; the Tate Modern of London and the MoMA of New York. His participation in
the Biennials of Mercosur, Venice, Lyon and Sao Paulo and the Triennial of the New Museum have revolved around
drawing as a pedagogical tool, from which he proposes a new concept of mobile school whose design is in
progress and that draws on the making of hand-made products and on dialogue with people, animals, plants,
students, teachers, curators and other artists.
Ma Belén Sáez de Ibarra (curator) directs the Art Museum of the National University of Colombia where since 2008
she has been developing a policy of commissioning and producing major exhibitions that span trans-disciplinary
processes and the diverse media of international contemporary art.
Image: Nicolás París. Jardín portátil, 2009-2014. Galería Elba Benítez
Opening: Friday 27 February 2015
Galería Elba Benitez
San Lorenzo 11 / +34913080468 / elbabenitez.com
Tue - Sat 11am to 7pm