Luis Gordillo, on 'Memorándum', at the MUN: "It is a very free exhibition, made on a whim".

Innovative, vitalist, tireless, prolific and unclassifiable. A true cultural totem and benchmark of contemporary art in the last half century. Such is the artist Luis Gordillo (Seville, 1934), who this Thursday will inaugurate Memorandum at Museo Universidad de Navarra. The exhibition, curated by Sema D'Acosta and produced by the center itself, emphasizes the main works of the artist made in the 21st century, in dialogue with some other emblematic pieces and series of his previous career. 

In fact, more than 70% of the works on display are unpublished, displayed on floor 0 and in the Museum's Tower Room. In addition, it brings together more than a hundred drawings and materials of the work that allow us to approach his creative process.

Gordillo, who participated in the presentation in Pamplona by video call from his home in Madrid, stressed that he is "very happy" with the exhibition, which has been conceived in a "very free way, as a whim". He was accompanied by curator Sema D'Acosta and Valentin Vallhorant, artistic director of the Museum together with Rafael Levenfeld.

D'Acosta pointed out that Luis Gordillo is "an artist who has been at the forefront since the 1970s, who allows us to understand the change we have lived through in this half-century. An author who straddles two very different worlds and who has always taken risks, moving at the limits. And he is still very active".

EXCEPTIONAL AND ACTIVE PROJECT

He also defined Memorándum as "an exceptional project, Gordillo's most ambitious in the last decade. An active exhibition, which takes into account the artist, in constant dialogue with the Museum". In this sense, he explained that the viewer will find an exhibition "that is the opposite of a historical or retrospective project. It is loaded with affectivity". Focused on the artist's production of the 21st century, with special emphasis on the last five years, the exhibition also brings together early pieces, such as a work from 1959, which coexists, for example, with a work from January of this same year. Also on view are works by the artist made during the period of his confinement.

Gordillo himself explained that the exhibition allows us to observe "the development of the work, as if we were looking at it under a microscope, the molecules of the paint, how they become more complex, how they unite, how bodies are made. In my painting every day it is more important how to agglutinate pictorial bodies, taking direct symptoms of society or mine, and mixing them. It is as if I were making another parallel Gordillo. I think that defines very well what I want to do".

About the title of the exhibition, the artist has pointed out that it has an intentionality: "It is a public speech, like going to the notary to tell the truth for the record. It is also somewhat ironic, because of the excessive importance of the word. It also has to do with my age (86 years old), not because I don't think I'm not going to live any longer, but because you get closer to the feeling that this has an end. It's that aroma.

In his speech, the curator also stressed that Memorándum "allows us to consider in depth the most outstanding lines of research of his career, giving special importance to the constant feedback between photography and painting, a characteristic territory of the author. The images are continually jumping from the paintings to the photograph. It is a dialectical approach, with the intention of discovering syntactic and structural aspects that serve to understand the artist's modes of operation".

He also valued that, at such a difficult time as the present, this project is "an example for everyone because it is necessary to assume responsibilities and commitments to culture and society".

For his part, Vallhorant stressed that Memorándum is "a project that reveals the procedures that Gordillo uses to make his images and that offers light to understand his artistic process. In this sense, he emphasized that "the Museum is a research center that focuses both on facilitating the art experience for the visitor and the scholar, and on establishing channels that make it possible to access the artists' work. The result of the research of this project is excellent, innovative and offers a new perspective on the work of one of the most important living painters in Spain".