Javier Arce

Marès... un contrato natural

20.08.22 – 24.09.22

During the month of May 2022, Javier Arce lived and worked with his partner and their two year old son in our studios with the Artist-in-Residence program. Here he conceived the exhibition Marès... un contrato natural for the Casa de Cultura Ses Cases Noves in Santanyí, an initiative of the town council after he won the IX Premi Vila de Santanyí d'Arts Visuals.

For this exhibition project, the artist wanted to create from what was close to him without knowing beforehand what he was going to do. Avoiding falling into clichés or pre-established images of the island, Arce looks at the place, feels it, thinks about it and then produces his works. Except for its geography and weather conditions, the island is very similar to the place where he lives and works in Cantabria, a shepherd's cottage in the mountains. From that perspective, he seeks the relationship between the local and the global, the personal and the political, between the natural landscape and contemporary conflicts and, ultimately, between individual desire and collective impulse.