Aitor Gonzalez
"In some ways making art is similar to making an erosion in the meaning of the object. It’s like playing with the different ways materials and objects can be thought and presented. I have always been very interested in the possibilities an object can have beyond its given function."
Could you tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been a practising artist and where did you study?
I was born in Spain, where I did part of my Fine Art degree at the University of Valencia. My mum moved from Peru to Spain when she was 20, in a sense I was following in her footsteps when I ended in UK. I did a year abroad as an exchange student at the University of Leeds and I’ve been doing art projects since then. In Spain I was fortunate enough to be in a very creative environment which gave me stimuli to be more and cultivate my interest in contemporary art. At the beginning of my practice I was interested in tridimensional objects so I guess I was some sort of sculptor but I’ve always tried to avoid terms that seem to limit my work. Currently I produce sculpture in the same way I produce video, photography, painting and design-based, I am more interested in the further possibilities of my surroundings than in the exploration of an artistic medium.
You often use everyday objects, could you tell us a bit about your work and the thoughts behind using these household items?
In most of my works I am referencing day to day gestures by using manufactured objects or urban materials. I am very interested in my surroundings and the opportunities they present. In the final pieces there is a desire to explore the poetic and conceptual possibilities of these manufactured, prosaic objects and how their behavior changes when they are placed in a different ecosystem, like a gallery space.
In some ways making art is similar to making an erosion in the meaning of the object. It’s like playing with the different ways materials and objects can be thought and presented. I have always been very interested in the possibilities an object can have beyond its given function. All this interest probably comes from my interest in the interaction between bodies and materials.
El Sol Me Miro 2016
Untitled 2017
Its Hard to Be Down When You Are Up 2016
Could you tell us about the piece titled: "We must write in the language of the enemy"?
Here I am exploring different materials that deny or caricaturize presence. If there is a common factor in the development of my work, I would say that it is my curiosity towards speech, in particular how speech is created and transmitted in culture.
I try to indicate how objects and materials can be reissued and rewritten, but never detached from their cultural sediment. My curiosity also extends to my place in the whole cultural production process. the piece, which issues the concept of the transformation of meaning, and the artist who initiates the process is also curious to me In this relation, the artwork becomes the support where the body leaves traces.
“We must write in the language of the enemy” was prepared as part of a portfolio presentation for emerging artists in a project called Les Cliniques es Baluard at the Museum of Contemporary in Palma de Mallorca. It drafts some ideas around the way symbols are presented. Through the simple act of placing scratch-off paper on an art magazine the transmission and of the text is postponed and obscured, offering access to new discourses.
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day/studio routine? What is your studio like?
Until recently I was based with a group of colleagues in a quite affordable space at Leeds city centre. In the last few months I’ve been more focused on the research and the development of projects that I had left aside between Valencia, Palma de Mallorca and Leeds.
Me and a group of artists will soon be setting up a “Partnership Residency”, taking the form of a studio space in the outskirts of Leeds that will give us a space and access to different facilities and opportunities.
We Must Writte In The Language Of The Enemy 2017
My Heart Is Melting 2016
All Those False Idols 2016
Trees Die Standing Tall 2015
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
On my last trip to the Balearic Islands I visited the solo exhibition of Valerie Krause at the L21 Gallery. The gallery moved from its location in the city center to a big industrial unit in the outskirts of Mallorca, within this austere environment there was an extremely poetic pyramid-shaped artwork made of loam and straw. Seeing such an organic material in that kind of space got totally stuck in my mind.
How do you go about naming your work?
I’ve always been interested in literature, and I think that has transferred into the way I deal with the titles of the pieces. I work mostly by intuition and the way I name the works is perhaps a way of giving lending them a poetic connotation. Most of the works play with some sort of inner tension, giving them a very personal title helps to make them more familiar, like rendering something like persona in the pieces.
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
This is a busy year for me, I just closed a group exhibition curated by Andreu Porcar within an art space called Greasy Senate in Spain and I am finishing a wall piece that will be shown next year in another gallery in Valencia.
At the moment, I am preparing myself for some residencies happening in 2017-2018 in Scotland and Spain, a lot of preparations and research. In terms of projects outside my practice, me and a group of colleagues are now in the process of developing an art project in Leeds that will provide opportunities and studio spaces for emerging artists in the area.
All images courtesy of the artist
Publish Date: 23/11/17
