To Jump is Synonymous with an Unknown Future

Description

To Jump is Synonymous with an Unknown Future

The exhibition title, To Jump is Synonymous with an Unknown Future is a phrase borrowed from writer Carmen Rotger’s 2024 poetry collection That Contradict One Another (Que se contradicen). It metaphorically summarises the artistic practice of a generation that shares a common existential framework.

Leap, take the plunge, hurl oneself off and jump are all actions that involve an encounter with vertigo and possibility. They imply projecting oneself into the unknown as the only way to open up new paths. This lack of certainty is one of the shared life experiences of young people today. At the same time, it is one of the premises that constitute the context in which new artists find themselves. Emerging artists are obliged to navigate a slippery and hazardous path, one divorced from any causal logic that could establish a predictable order of events to serve as a guideline.

Based on the work of four Madrid-based artists: Sofía Briales (Arta Delharte), Mario Manso, Isabel Merchante and Ángel Sevillano, the exhibition reflects on questions related to time and the myriad ways of being in the world. It focuses on aspects related to our phenomenological perception of our surroundings, the formal instability of art, and the interaction between machines and organisms. Aiming to be a collective gesture and affirmation for those who make up the emerging fabric, the exhibition is presented as a multi-scenario array of works, ranging from installations to paintings.

Sofía Briales (Arta Delharte) (Madrid, 1999) is a visual artist who holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Castile-La Mancha (UCLM, 2023). Situated between expanded painting and the digital realm, her practice explores the boundaries between performance and object-based art as forms for producing meaning and escape. She has complemented her artistic research by taking part in programmes such as From the Action to the Object and From the Object to the Action (MACBA, Barcelona) and in individual and collective exhibitions at venues such as Casa de Vacas del Retiro with the Rio & Meñaka Gallery (Madrid), Spiral (Valencia), Chaiz Studio (Madrid), the Amelia Moreno Foundation (19th Artists Gathering, Quintanar de la Orden, 2023), as well as in Valencia, Mallorca and Cuenca. She has recently completed artistic residencies at GlogauAIR (Berlin) and at the Florencio de la Fuente Museum of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the Antonio Pérez Foundation. Her forthcoming projects include participation in the Vía Farini Residency Programme (Milan).

Although the intrinsic nature of the photograph lies at the heart of Mario Manso’s work (Logroño, 2004), it serves primarily as a starting point for a deeper reflections on human nature. Of late, he has been involved in an in-depth exploration of his connection to the fleeting and the origin of our efforts to ensure that some trace remains of the volatile nature of our lives. His work has featured in exhibitions such as the 39th La Rioja Exhibition of Young Art (2023); the Castile and León Young Art Contest (where he won first prize in the “Other Artistic Disciplines” category in 2024); the 9th Aparte Art Fair at the EspacioBelleartes Cáceres, 2023; and the exhibition Drawing and Body Within the Academy: Other Ways of Perceiving.

Isabel Merchante (Madrid, 1999) is a visual artist. Her practice is inspired by her observation of space and specific materials, placing great value on her intuition to access knowledge beyond the explicit, and on her imagination as a tool with which to expand reality. She materialises her projects in site-specific installations, sculptures, performance art pieces, and photographic series that put forward speculative narratives and new ways of perceiving. Her works can often only be experienced for short periods of time or in remote locations, where she creates illusions, singularities and windows to other worlds. She has displayed her work in the United Kingdom, at venues such as the Tate Modern Camden Art Centre, IVI House, hARTslane and the Royal College of Art. In Madrid she has had exhibitions at the Young Art Gallery, Matadero Madrid, the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Santa Barbara Palace, LEA and La Casa Encendida.

Ángel Sevillano (Madrid,1998) uses contemporary iconography depicting local customs to explore ideological tensions and contemporary issues - the primary subjects of his artistic research. His work has been displayed at the Florencio de la Fuente Museum of Contemporary Art in Huete in two exhibitions: Prêt-a-Porter and Perception Community Environment, both in 2022; at the Condeduque Centre for Contemporary Culture, Madrid in the Brand New Show (2021); at Espacio Lavadero in Granada in the El Postalero exhibition (2022); at the Lab of Experimental Art (LEA) in Madrid, in the Processes exhibition (2022); at the AMSAR Fest in Amsterdam (2022); at the Espacio Quinta del Sordo in Madrid in the Mapea Urban Art exhibition (2022).

The exhibition curator is Pedro Huidobro (Madrid, 1998). Holding a degree in History from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Huidobro has forged a career spanning various areas of contemporary art, including auction houses, galleries, public institutions, and foundations. He currently runs and manages Provisional23, an independent art space in Madrid.