Iñaki Bonillas
11 Sep - 07 Oct 2010
IÑAKI BONILLAS
"The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"
11.09. – 07.10.2010, Opening 11.09.2010 at 4 pm
Hermes und der Pfau is pleased to announce “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” – the first solo exhibition of the Mexican artist Iñaki Bonillas (*1981) in Germany.
Based on his grandfather J. R. Plaza’s comprehensive picture archive, the Mexico City-based artist explores various aspects of the photographic medium. Using solely found photographs, he connects private stories – which, in his family are entwined around the charismatic character of his grandfather – with the analytical language of conceptual art. Thus, subjective emotions and personal biography are presented in the shape of a quasi-scientific research. In his continuous re-examination, organisation and interpretation of his grandfather’s archive, the question he is currently interested in revolves around how and whether the people, who are depicted with closed eyes in his grandfather’s photographs, elude the act of photography – which in a way means they position themselves next to the picture in order to avoid immortalisation. The connection of photography to absentee expressed in the picture through the closed eyes might be known as an experience “of death” (Roland Barthes). As, during the early phases of photography in the 19th century it were mainly open eyes of people in pictures that provoked irritation and fear (eyes were seen as a direct window to the soul, so what if the eyes on photographs stared back at you) for Bonillas today it is people with closed eyes in photographs, who bear something deeply unnerving and evoke a feeling of this original magical dimension of a photographic depiction, which has actually long vanished.
The exhibition’s title “The Expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals” refers to a book by Charles Darwin from 1872, in which Darwin substantiated his theory of evolution – published only a few years earlier – through an examination of analogue emotional reactions in humans and animals. For his installation at Hermes und der Pfau, Iñaki Bonillas uses the plates dedicated to the physiognomic expressive behaviour of this scientific publication – for which in addition to drawings and engravings photographs were employed for the first time – as his starting point. All windows (eyes) of the exhibition space are blocked with plasterboard into which various reproductions of people with closed eyes from J.R. Plaza’s archive (printed on translucent Duratrans paper) were fitted. Thus the walls become plates; the arrangement of the pictures on the walls is conceived as homage and continuation of Darwin’s plates. Literary fragments of texts – attributed to each of the depictions which are lit from behind and which, on their part, also deal with people with closed eyes – serve as a kind of guide for the exhibition: “What chill and awful breath is this, that touches my closed eyes? I will not open them from life!” (Fernado Pessoa)
Iñaki Bonillas was born in 1981 in Mexico City where he currently lives and works. His works were recently presented in various exhibitions such as “Modelos para armar” at MUSAC, León, “Les enfants terribles” at the Colección Jumex, Mexico City, “El mal de escritura” at the Studies Center of MACBA, Barcelona, “Protective Coloration” at the Bard College, New York and “Little Theater of Gestures” at Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel and Malmö Konsthall. His work was also presented at the Statements of Art Basel this year. Iñaki Bonillas is represented by ProjecteSD, Barcelona, Galleria Sonia Rosso, Turin and Galería OMR, Mexico City. On September 16, 2010, the exhibition “Ghost Story of an Antiquary” by Iñaki Bonillas will open at the ProjecteSD in Barcelona.
"The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"
11.09. – 07.10.2010, Opening 11.09.2010 at 4 pm
Hermes und der Pfau is pleased to announce “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” – the first solo exhibition of the Mexican artist Iñaki Bonillas (*1981) in Germany.
Based on his grandfather J. R. Plaza’s comprehensive picture archive, the Mexico City-based artist explores various aspects of the photographic medium. Using solely found photographs, he connects private stories – which, in his family are entwined around the charismatic character of his grandfather – with the analytical language of conceptual art. Thus, subjective emotions and personal biography are presented in the shape of a quasi-scientific research. In his continuous re-examination, organisation and interpretation of his grandfather’s archive, the question he is currently interested in revolves around how and whether the people, who are depicted with closed eyes in his grandfather’s photographs, elude the act of photography – which in a way means they position themselves next to the picture in order to avoid immortalisation. The connection of photography to absentee expressed in the picture through the closed eyes might be known as an experience “of death” (Roland Barthes). As, during the early phases of photography in the 19th century it were mainly open eyes of people in pictures that provoked irritation and fear (eyes were seen as a direct window to the soul, so what if the eyes on photographs stared back at you) for Bonillas today it is people with closed eyes in photographs, who bear something deeply unnerving and evoke a feeling of this original magical dimension of a photographic depiction, which has actually long vanished.
The exhibition’s title “The Expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals” refers to a book by Charles Darwin from 1872, in which Darwin substantiated his theory of evolution – published only a few years earlier – through an examination of analogue emotional reactions in humans and animals. For his installation at Hermes und der Pfau, Iñaki Bonillas uses the plates dedicated to the physiognomic expressive behaviour of this scientific publication – for which in addition to drawings and engravings photographs were employed for the first time – as his starting point. All windows (eyes) of the exhibition space are blocked with plasterboard into which various reproductions of people with closed eyes from J.R. Plaza’s archive (printed on translucent Duratrans paper) were fitted. Thus the walls become plates; the arrangement of the pictures on the walls is conceived as homage and continuation of Darwin’s plates. Literary fragments of texts – attributed to each of the depictions which are lit from behind and which, on their part, also deal with people with closed eyes – serve as a kind of guide for the exhibition: “What chill and awful breath is this, that touches my closed eyes? I will not open them from life!” (Fernado Pessoa)
Iñaki Bonillas was born in 1981 in Mexico City where he currently lives and works. His works were recently presented in various exhibitions such as “Modelos para armar” at MUSAC, León, “Les enfants terribles” at the Colección Jumex, Mexico City, “El mal de escritura” at the Studies Center of MACBA, Barcelona, “Protective Coloration” at the Bard College, New York and “Little Theater of Gestures” at Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel and Malmö Konsthall. His work was also presented at the Statements of Art Basel this year. Iñaki Bonillas is represented by ProjecteSD, Barcelona, Galleria Sonia Rosso, Turin and Galería OMR, Mexico City. On September 16, 2010, the exhibition “Ghost Story of an Antiquary” by Iñaki Bonillas will open at the ProjecteSD in Barcelona.