Cibrián is thrilled to present paper, the first solo exhibition by Victor Ruiz Colomer at the gallery.
Ruiz Colomer’s practice unfolds as a broader exploration of space making and the inherent material friction involved in that process. Through a variety of mediums, some more rooted in a sculptural tradition, some which are still undefined - or suspended, the artist investigates the relationship between the different scales that condition a particular space.
In paper, sculpture claims its spatial autonomy, manifesting as a drawer, a door, a playlist, and other elements that both contain and channel data. These forms exist as self-contained spaces carefully crafted by the artist, who draws on materials shaped by circulation such as magnets, light bulbs, or eyelashes to create the sculptures. Here, these materials become part of relational systems with different registers and scales, serving as spaces for translation.
The work Untitled (under the wing) for instance, consists of a drawer that invites the audience to open it; each action triggers a response: a light turns on. The piece explores the volumetric transformation of space through a specific action and the roles and dynamics that emerge around it.
The artist brings to the conversation his high school art teacher, with whom he had a conversation on how drawer as a noun in English is related to both the act of drawing on paper and both a compartment that stores objects, perhaps even memories. However, he is interested in drawing as an action of invoking, somehow closer to a diagrammatic desire.
Another example, cue Caribou Sun ralentizada takes the form of an electrical system that distributes light through 11 plugs. These 11 plugs are controlled by 4 channel theatre stage dimmer. The light sequence that is produced through the 4 channels corresponds to the polyrhythmic sequence of Sun by Caribou, a song the artist has slowed down and cued the rhythms to a light sequence.
The sequence is triggered by a software that reads Youtube streams for 19 songs that talk about the sun in different forms: through heat, loving, homesickness, desire, longing, and the feeling of belonging… Everytime someone listens to one of those songs, cue Caribou Sun ralentizada starts its sequence involving unwitting participants beyond the gallery, producing a space for spectatorship while redistributing performance roles.
A series of black-and-white photographs punctuates the exhibition. They depict portraits of the artist himself, his close friends and collaborators. Their faces are partially covered with makeup that imitates their own features. This work was created in collaboration with makeup artist Jonah Kawri Ramírez Sturzenegger. The displacement of the facial features arises from technical drawing exercises based on the translation of angles. In architectural terms, the angles formed between the direction of the heads and that of the gazes—combining the subjects’ real eyes with their painted ones—create vectors that suggest how to move through the space in which the works are installed.
These are intimate spaces of circulation that involve people in varying degrees of proximity, responsibility, and anonymity, creating places to experiment with roles through their arrangement and agency. The artist is interested in space not as something given, but as a construction that negotiates with attention.