In an unprecedented collaboration, the TRINTA and METRO galleries jointly present ARCHIMÉTRICA. HISTORIAS DE UN CONTÍNUO RENACER, an exhibition that brings together in both galleries some of the elements that were produced by the artist from La Mancha José Luis Serzo (Albacete, 1977) for the creation of his first short film, as well as others created for the visual development of the same.

 

Produced and exhibited by CAB Burgos in 2020, ARCHIMÉTRICA was awarded and nominated in several international festivals, including Best Creative Vision Award at the International Thai Film Festival 2020, Best Cinematography Award at the MosFilmFest 2020 in Moscow and Best Actress Award at the New York True Film Festival 2020. In this shared exhibition, we present objects and materials that make up this project, showing the storyboards, paintings, sculptures, props and sets to create an exhibition as polyhedral as it is theatrical. In it, the story of our protagonist and her experiences go beyond the screen to turn the rooms of the galleries themselves into stages that represent the living space of Archimétrica, a young apprentice artist who has to face her own fears in order to experience a continuous personal catharsis. In this way, ARCHIMÉTRICA. HISTORIAS DE UN CONTÍNUO RENACER (ARCHIMÉTRICA. STORIES OF A CONTINUOUS REBIRTH) comes back to life so that the spectator can fully immerse himself in the genuine Serzian universe. An existential space, constructed on this occasion from subtle references to Suprematism or the Bauhaus, in which a series of transcendental events unfold in a singular micro-world of squares, triangles, squares, bevels... and also chickens. 

 

Since his childhood, theatre has been a fundamental element in Serzo´s life. His experiences alongside his mother as director of a small theatre company in his home town have developed in him a special interest in performance and in the magic of the spectacle as a vehicle to travel to imaginary worlds, which has deeply influenced his conception of art and his own person. The props, the costumes or the curtain as a metaphor for the border between the fictional world and the real world have been germinal in the subsequent definition of his identity as a person and as an artist, which has allowed him to construct a varied work in which one can perceive traits of surrealism, symbolism or a certain baroque formalism; a constant look at the past, the history of art and the role that the artist himself has to play in its future. Positioned as one of the most powerful and personal voices of contemporary figuration, Serzo not only stands out for his great technical skill or for his ability to spread enjoyment and love for his work, but also for his overflowing imagination, for the truth of his stories, fables and fantastic tales, which he presents to us without deception or gimmicks, so that we can reflect positively on the lights and shadows of the human condition.

 

Juan Manuel Bonet, critic and author of the text of the catalogue published by the CAB in collaboration with Dardo and Nocapaper, described the author of Archimétrica as follows: José Luis Serzo is one of the most powerful and personal voices of a current figuration whose protagonists, although often ignored by the powerful sector of criticism and museography that is manifestly hostile to painting, are managing to make themselves heard (...) ...a man-orchestra in perpetual movement. With an overflowing, vertiginous imagination, he paints with great skill and is an accomplished draughtsman, produces sculptures and installations (...), ...occasionally practices photography and video, writes texts as full of substance as are his interviews, he takes great care of his publications (often real books) and his website is a real bottomless pit, he has an enviable and ecumenical agenda, he has played in several rock bands, and now he has opened a permanent space in the town of Morille in Salamanca, a space inaugurated with a "Serzian costume contest", and that, knowing him, will surely give a lot to talk about (...), (...) The work that comes out of the Serzian lair shoots off in many directions, reconciling such different things as romantic landscape, installations, and an irrepressible passion, especially evident in the work that motivates these lines, for the old avant-gardes, and more specifically for Dadaism, and more specifically for Dadaism and Constructivism, which are thus added to an imaginary museum as rich as his own (...) The step he now takes with Archimétrica is to embark on making a fully-fledged film, and to make, with it, an exhibition that brings together all the material he needed to produce it (...).