Lightning, flashes, birds in flight, fragmented sculptures, fire and shadows. These are just some of the subtle images that populate the Universes by David Jiménez (Alcalá de Guadaira, Seville, 1970), the exhibition that opens this Wednesday at the Museum of Fine Arts of Madrid, produced by the Community of Madrid and the Museum itself. Museo Universidad de Navarraproduced by the Community of Madrid and the Museum itself. The artist proposes a poetic space in which the limits of representation and the relationships between images are explored through photographs, projections and installations. The exhibition gathers the essence of the projects carried out by Jiménez throughout more than 25 years of career, articulated in three series: ROMA, Aura and Versus.

After its passage PHotoEspaña 2019, where it could be seen in the Sala del Canal de Isabel II, in Madrid, it now arrives in Pamplona with a renewed spatial and formal proposal, which houses the Torre and LaCaixa rooms of the Museum. "I seek to create universes of images that are mutable and adapt to the spaces to generate unique experiences of discovery," explained the artist at the presentation of the exhibition, accompanied by Valentin Vallhonrat, artistic director of the Museum. "There is a great effort to make the representations open and it is a work that proposes structures to which we have to give meaning," Vallhonrat stressed.

In this sense, Jiménez emphasizes that he does not seek "to explain an idea, but to create an experience, both in the individual works and as a whole, in which the viewer is given a very active role. I am interested in leaving clues so that they can complete readings and generate their own itinerary of meanings".

SUBTLE DIALOGUE BETWEEN IMAGES

In his work, in which the projects are developed simultaneously over the years, experimentation is a priority, exploring the different relationships, partially veiled, between the images. A subtle and changing dialogue. "I try to make a poem, a metaphor about intuition around the phenomena of the world that, in reality, contain a hidden network of intertwined relationships," explains Jiménez. That's why resonance and alchemy are key: "I'm interested in how things transmute into each other. For example, elemental issues such as fire, water or earth. Metaphorically, I work with these pure elements".

Thus, a space is generated "in which physical pieces are combined with moving projections. I was interested in that different nature, the evanescent image that is projected, goes away, or is integrated with another, as in the fades of the projections". One of the challenges has been to build a projection room within the exhibition hall itself (LaCaixa hall), which has made it possible to divide it into three areas where the works ROMA and Aura are presented. 

ROMAa project he developed during his stay at the Spanish Academy in the Italian capital, is related "to the transforming power of time, how it erodes, transforms and recomposes. Everything can be fragmented and reconstructed". In this sense, he points out that "Rome is an impressive laboratory where we can see the work of time". And this idea is transferred in a metaphorical way. "For example, there are some photographs that reflect fragments of sculptures and their ability to evoke the human being is important".

For its part, Aura has its origins in different trips the artist made to India, although there is no pretense of documenting social or cultural aspects of the country. "It has to do with India deeply, but in a very abstract sense. It is related to that root of Hindu philosophy that speaks of the interconnectedness of the phenomena of the world and the dance of reality."

For its part, Versuscan be visited in the Torre Room, divided into two spaces, black and white: "It poses a strong duality between two complementary universes, which are basically the same, and are presented, metaphorically, as positive and negative. There are numerous images that are related to one of the other. These small resonances are very important.

The exhibition presents universes that intertwine to end up forming a single unit with a great evocative force. As Jiménez defends, "art is an activity that serves, above all, to try to see the world with new schemes. I believe in it as a method of knowledge that allows us to see and think differently.