Often, in Martin Llavaneras’ pieces and installations, forms generated from conduits and material deposits appear. These formalizations reflect the artist’s interests in the circulation of water through infrastructures such as reservoirs, channels, and treatment plants. Llavaneras observes how around and through these places, plants and sediments accumulate, organize, and distribute. These circulation dynamics activate his working processes, where patterns of nature’s transformation, production and distribution of raw materials, and the specific means of sculpture overlap.
The word “escarpe” encompasses two contexts that find their course here: as a tool and as a geographical feature. An “escarpe” is used for roughing, carving, or creating differences in level, also for interfering, injuring, or even trepanning, assuming the gesture itself as irregularity. But an “escarpe” is also a geological cut, a leap that bursts into the landscape, yet at the same time serves as a ledge. It is a kind of initial projection present in the early stages of a fault, which disappears as erosion takes its toll, giving rise to a new feature, and at the same time, a new replica. The technique employed by Llavaneras to generate his reliefs captures the gesture of the escarpment using the stems of the leaves.
In the exhibition, a set of pieces is presented that replicate various materials and finishes. The production and reproduction of plants are translated into sculptural representation and reproduction through an architectural mindset: what is naturally given becomes constructed and molded here. To duplicate and copy, fold once again, reproduce in a layer, a patina. The vital matter becomes linked to materials and industrial processes through the gesture of replication. Yet, it is also an approach towards the ornamental: Metope, Tympanum, Frieze, Capital, Stained Glass, Cornice, Tile.
Martin Llavaneras (Lleida, 1983) lives and works in Barcelona. He studied Fine Arts in Bilbao, Berlin, and Barcelona. His work has been exhibited in spaces and institutions such as Artiatx, Bilbao; Fundación Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa; TEA – Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife; Fundació Joan Miro, Barcelona; Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporànea, Valencia; CAPC — Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux; Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida; ADA Project, Roma; Yaby, Madrid; Meetfactory, Praga; Atelier35, Bucarest; among others.
