Nordés opens its doors with
the solo show Signos (Signs) by the
artist Pablo Barreiro (Meaño, Spain,
1982).
Creator of a very personal sculptural
ceramics work, Pablo Barreiro starts from forms of the past which he then
resignifies. By creating collage-like compositions of serial elements, he
undertakes a search for a reinterpretation of the manufacturing processes and
forms in disuse of certain structural pieces; functional and decorative everyday
objects that he uses as models.
His interest in exploring the process
through the materials often leads him to find something in the error itself; a starting point on
which to experiment and conceptualize new works that are incorporated as a key
part of the work.
Likewise, the concept of
reproducibility, the conflict area between the original and the copy and other
antagonistic terms linked to the sculptural fact are commonly found in his work.
Despite the seriality of the elements that make up his sculptures, each one of them is conceived as a unique piece, thus reinforcing their craft nature.
Signos (Signs) is composed of works belonging to two of the series that Pablo Barreiro has been developing in recent years: the series Empilhamentos (from the Portuguese word empilhar: stack up), which started in 2012 as a research project of his artistic residency carried out at the Lisbon Ar.Co school; it explores the relationship with certain everyday forms-signs of the past with their context, a process that started upon accidentally finding several moulds in an old factory.
The choice of glazed porcelain as a material gives these
works a subtlety and neutrality that allows new readings. The Columns series
also emphasizes this resignification of functional elements - structural in
this case- reversing its traditional function of sustaining by being suspended,
resembling lighter elements when they lose their verticality. The possibility
of ornamentation of its surface is kept and it is in this space where the
artist presents multiple decorative variations under a reduced chromatic range
with few concessions to colour.