From July 18 to September 13, 2024
"Clivias". Site-specific installation project by Rafa Munárriz for the Patio of the Galería Pelaires.
The exhibition "Clivias" by Rafa Munárriz features a series of three large sculptures with which, based on an industrial dialectic, the artist seeks an approach to organic forms, inspired by the multiplication of clivias, a plant that is common to the Balearic landscape and courtyards in traditional Majorcan houses.
The three sculptures on display start from a nomenclature that is precisely associated with the industrialisation of colour. Using the RAL classic colour chart, the artist established a chromatic composition that resembles the natural colour of the flower, resulting in the sculptures Clivia Rojo Tráfico(Clivia Traffic Red), Clivia Rojo Rubí(Clivia Ruby Red) and Clivia Rojo Carmín (Clivia Carmine Red).
The starting point of these three sculptures goes back to the artist's reading of contemporary space, in which the city is interpreted as the result of cladding accumulation. Within a speculative logic of deprivation or negation of space, the artist made the sculptures using and transforming sheet metal, understood as a key cladding element in the creation of this constructive fiction.
The shapes of the sculptures are the result of a search for organic gesture or error in industrial production processes, subjecting the trays to strain and irregularities that do not necessarily seek to serve as a representation of the plant, but rather as a decomposition of the urban imaginary.
The artist Rafa Munárriz (Tudela, 1990) focuses on the social and material construction of contemporary urban space. His spatial and sculptural practice recontextualises elements, materials and processes common in the management of modern and contemporary public space with the aim of emphasizing its participation in different forms of governance and management. His work reframes the material processes that shape ordinary social spaces, mainly those in standardised industrial production. Munárriz repositions the genealogies of urban design as a starting point for new ways of perception and civic relations, as a proposal halfway between critical analysis and new dynamics of belonging.
Rafa Munárriz graduated in Fine Arts with honours from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and spent some time abroad at ABK Stuttgart (Germany), SAIC (USA) and USP (Brazil). In 2013 he took part in the independent PIESP programme led by Adriano Pedrosa and Ana Paula Cohen. His work has been exhibited nationally, both individually in institutions such as Centro Conde Duque (Madrid) and Fundación Oteiza (Alzuza) and collectively in venues such as TEA (Tenerife), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), MUSAC (León) or Centro Botín (Santander). He has also participated in international exhibitions, including Casa do Povo and MAB FAAP (Brazil), Sullivan Galleries (Chicago) and Mumok (Vienna). Furthermore, he has been selected for national art calls (e.g. Primera Fase DKV, Circuitos, Injuve and the Botín Foundation grant) and has participated in artist residencies at Pivô (São Paulo), Proyecto Amil (Lima) and Casa Wabi (Puerto Escondido).
Views from the exhibition "Clivias" by Rafa Munárriz, Galeria Pelaires (Image by Rafa Munarriz, courtesy of Galeria Pelaires).