Miguel Ángel Gaüeca .- Houses
29/Sep/2023 - 29/Sep/2023
HOUSES, the seventh individual exhibition by MIGUEL ÁNGEL GAÜECA at Espacio Mínimo gallery, shows pieces belonging to the series of the same title, for the first time. This project, partially financed by the Vegap Assistance and Cultural Fund, is made up of photographs, sculptures and installations in which the artist starts from the polysemy of the term House and highlights cultural structures of power, belonging and identity linked to it.
HOUSES continues with the exploration and analysis of the modes of identity construction, both individual and collective, that the artist has been carrying out since his beginnings, with series such as Pinky, 1997, or Me, Myself and I, 2001-2005 and which gradually positioned more on the modes and practices of the art world as a space for social experimentation in projects such as My Love Affair with Art, 2004, Take a Theme and Develop it, 2012 or the latest project presented at the gallery, Setting the Record Straight, 2017.
In this case, the “houses” that are presented in the show refer to the modes of configuration and group relationship -class, status, sexual identity,…- so they move between realities such as the New York Houses that emerged to generate a network of protection and affection for the racialized LGBTI+ community hit by the AIDS crisis, the fashion and haute couture “houses”, the “houses” that organize the Anglo-Saxon political system, the noble “houses”… Structures of inclusion and belonging that, just as the world of art and its representation operates, are articulated from codes, scenery and positioning.
We should add, to all these realities, one that appeared once the series began. After presenting to the public the first pieces, the pandemic generated a new meaning to the words, behaviors and modes of group relationships, so is why Houses also places us in our lockdown experiences and our reconfiguration of our own spaces.
As the text on this series says:
“Starting from denial to configure an identity, both individual and collective, is one of the most widespread strategies. Dialectics and cannibalism by Alberto Cardín, 1984, already described this social dynamic in which the fear of the other, or the fear of ourselves reflected in the other, allowed the group to unite. (…) The Houses go through different personifications and structures of belonging to a community, which again affect both identity and structures of power and domination. But while they define us and show us, they constrain us and are the containers of heritage, (…) confronting us in our houses, forcing us to redefine our social environments and visualizing that any structure, any home, any house, is based on the sickness of its foundations.”
MIGUEL ÁNGEL GAÜECA (Bilbao, 1967),
Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country in the specialty of sculpture. He has exhibited individually or collectively at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, Santa Mónica Art Center, Budapest Mücsarnok Kunstalle, Berlin Academy of Arts, M.A.R.C.O. of Vigo, Foto Colectania Foundation of Barcelona, ARTIUM of Alava, Australian Center for Photography, March Foundation of Palma de Mallorca, M.U.S.A.C. of León, Museu da Imagem of Braga, MEIAC of Badajoz, Museo San Telmo of San Sebastian or the DA2 of Salamanca, among others, has also participated in numerous art fairs such as ARCO, SUMMA, MACO Foto, PINTA, VOLTA, ArtBo, Lima Photo, Art Taipei, FOROSUR, Frieze Art Fair, Art Bassel Miami, Art Chicago or at The Gramercy Contemporary International Art Fair. His work is present in collections such as Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the Coca Cola Foundation, the Aragonese Institute of Contemporary Art, Pilar Citoler Collection, BilbaoArte Foundation, ARTIUM of Alava, Purificación García Collection, Alcobendas City Council or Ministry of Asuntos Sociales, among others. He is exclusively represented by Espacio Mínimo Gallery in Madrid.
