Three parasite species: flies, mrñ and dblt, made the rounds this past Saturday at the Intermediae Matadero Madrid [Contemporary Creation], buzzing and swarming over the heads of the public, flashing blinking signs with the spectators. They are the Parásitos urbanos (Urban Parasites) by Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza.
By means of this off-the-wall presentation, the artist broaches the intervention process of his robotic sculptures through the project’s three stages: recycling, building and parasitizing, and in the same breath, sharing the experience of his course through structures and forms of life with people from the streets all the way into the workshop and back to the streets: the setting of these robots into the public space.
His works are forms of life, robotic sculptures that stay alive out of energy sources generated by the human race and that can be found in the urban environment. Several species of robotic parasites dwell inside the nave, complex restructuration and hybrids of technological wastes armed with mechanical and electronic systems that come together as artificial life with an ability to survive in this cityscape and invade the daily scenery.
Many of these parasites feed on the energy they steel from the power gridlines of the cities or the spaces where they settle down, and wind up interacting with their environment until they melt into the sound landscape of the place.
Gilberto Esparza (Aguascalientes, México, 1975) studied fine arts at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and conducted further studies at the School of Fine Arts of the San Carlos Technical University of Spain’s Valencia. His joint sound projects (Gilberto Esparza + Marcela Armas) have been watched at the Arroniz y Garash Gallery in Mexico, D.F.; and the individual ones (Autótrofos inorgánicos), at Casa del Lago Juan Jose Arreola; (Esculturas dinámicas) “Irene Arias” Hall of the Municipal Institute of Art and Culture in Durango; (Intervenciones en espacio no transitables), Casa de la Cultura in Guanajuato. His participation in collective expositions includes the Lerme Gallery and the MERCOSUR Biennial (Brazil); The Holman Hall College Art Gallery (New Jersey); Instituto Cultural Mexicano in Washington, D.C.; Experimenta Design (Amsterdam); Alta Tecnología Andina y Fundación Telefónica (Lima), among others.
Intermediae Matadero Madrid [Contemporary Creation]
Matadero Madrid, Paseo de la Chopera, 14 28045
Madrid
For more information: www.intermediae.es / http://www.gilbertoesparza.blogspot.com/
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