adrián villar rojas exhibit opens serpentine sackler gallery

adrián villar rojas
installation view, today we reboot the planet
serpentine sackler gallery, london
(28 september – 10 november 2013)
image courtesy of serpentine sackler gallery © 2013 jörg baumann

adrián villar rojas
serpentine sackler gallery, london
september 28 – november 10 2013

a site specific installation by argentinian artist adrián villar rojas is presented as the inaugural exhibition at the newly opened serpentine sackler gallery. designed by zaha hadid, the exhibition space will open to the public on saturday, september 28th, after an architectural transformation from a former 1805 gunpowder store (see designboom’s coverage of the opening here). ‘today we reboot the planet’ presents a collection of clay curiosities, creating a seemingly fossilized world of ancient monuments that toy with the perception of time, history, and modernity. the sculptures appear as relics from an invented antiquity or an imagined future. best known for his large-scale sculptural works made from clay, villar rojas tests the limits of the medium, manipulating its delicacy and malleability. none of his creations are fired and their certain deterioration becomes a significant part of their finality.

‘the way we are using clay is super-experimental — because the material is too fragile, because the pieces are difficult to transport, because they are cracking, they deteriorate in a totally disproportionate way.‘ villar rojas tells the guardian. ‘I never smash the sculpture to get the cracks. it just happens.’

 
adrián villar rojas
installation view, today we reboot the planet
serpentine sackler gallery, london
(28 september – 10 november 2013)
image courtesy of serpentine sackler gallery © 2013 jörg baumann

a significant part of his exhibition at serpentine sackler gallery is the space where his creative development takes place, a traditional brickwork site in argentina which, alongside its daily production of bricks, functions as a laboratory for his experimentation. his return to an traditional practice influences his take on the medium and its functions. as part of the exhibit in london, contemporary clay figures include a corpse-like model of kurt cobain, two legs echoing michelangelo’s david, with two kittens seemingly embracing at its base, and an ape with a missing lower half.

adrián villar rojas
installation view, today we reboot the planet
serpentine sackler gallery, london
(28 september – 10 november 2013)
image courtesy of serpentine sackler gallery © 2013 jörg baumann

adrián villar rojas
installation view, today we reboot the planet
serpentine sackler gallery, london
(28 september – 10 november 2013)
image courtesy of serpentine sackler gallery © 2013 jörg baumann

adrián villar rojas
installation view, today we reboot the planet
serpentine sackler gallery, london
(28 september – 10 november 2013)
image courtesy of serpentine sackler gallery © 2013 jörg baumann

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