As the researcher and deep experimenter that he is, the work of Carles Torrent Pagès (Girona, 1969) has evolved from his pictorial works to the sculptural interventions with which he has created a very personal telluric poetics. Through the construction of large pieces that go beyond the sculptural object and that, on many occasions, reach the character of an installation, the principle of "refounding the form" is placed as a premise of his research. In an attempt to go back to the origin of formed substance, what he is really looking for is form prior to form: form as the bearer of truth and as the principle of things; form as the driving principle of the universe and the exploration of the original meaning. It is the matter/form duality through which the artist's thinking flows. Primitive, incipient, unfinished, open forms... that seem trapped in matter in search of essence.
The power of this matter is one of the attractions of his work: alchemical force and accumulated energy are its active principles. It is confronted with an aesthetic of conventional sculptural materials in antagonistic coexistence with other anti-conventional ones to manifest the remote and unknown states of existence and primordial phenomena. The materials he uses are very diverse; most of them are not typical of traditional sculpture: water, ink, fabric, cork, enamel, methacrylate, technological mechanisms... which dialogue with other more common ones such as stainless steel, iron, lead, wood, marble... with which he gets some unique pieces. The intervention of light and movement are also core aspects of his proposals. It develops its own universe, a mythical and emblematic substrate, achieved thanks to the manipulation of all types of materials and the relationship they maintain with each other.
Endless is the title of the exhibition that Torrent Pagès presents at the Estanys park in Platja d'Aro; a set of twelve recent sculptural pieces that propose an itinerary through the artist's formal and conceptual concerns. Nature coexists with the industrial world, the result of human action, in a confrontation of natural materials with technological formulas. It raises a dichotomy between art and nature, naturalness and artifice: the universe of nature dialogues with the experience of artifice, everything natural coexists with the industrial. It evokes mythical nature and its generative potential, recalling a new condition.
The juxtaposition and struggle of the forms that play between resistance and docility, forcefulness and delicacy that always find conciliation, reinforce the primordial character of his works. Iconic artefacts that allow you to influence the energy faculties of the enigma. Cryptic, mysterious pieces that attract and disturb at the same time and that transport us to explore the origins of art and life.
In the image: Torrent Pagès. Integrity, 2021. Methacrylate, stainless steel and gold plating. 138x140x138 cm
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