BARCELONA.- In purehardillusion, a deconstructed Christmas tree shows, simultaneously but independently, the two stages of the artefact – the fir tree and the lights – as two superimposed moments of a deception. With this work, Luis Bisbe (Málaga, 1965) uses defamiliarisation and surprise to highlight the illusionistic dimension that shapes the meaning of Christmas as a time of beliefs and appearances.
Bisbe likes to explore the dialogue between the public and the private sphere by taking everyday objects which he displaces slightly, destabilising our perception of them. In this vein, the artist has planted a fir tree in the Olive Tree Patio at the Foundation, while he has put up the Christmas lights in the adjacent gallery, on the other side of a glass wall. Thus the Foundation's ornamental tree emerges only as an illusion in the area that lies between the exterior and interior of the museum, in the same way that the concept of the Christmas tree is constructed by the intersection of symbolic and cultural vectors that converge in the social framework. In the words of Bisbe: "Although it may be the moment to put the tree inside and take the lights outside, I prefer to leave the tree outside and the lights inside just to unite them in a virtual image, eliminating all that is superfluous to generate one more illusion.”
Bisbe sites the Christmas tree in the dichotomy between nature and culture, making this observation: "Illuminating a tree with artificial light or placing it under cover are actions that manifest the age-old illusion of controlling nature. […] The illusion makes use of magic, which in turn needs technique, deception, faith and militancy. The imposing illusion that cannot be questioned turns into Illusionism, it becomes ideology."
To complete the project, the artist has intervened directly in the design of the invitation to Nadala 2016 with a mosaic of images alluding that surround the illuminated fir tree as a decorative element characteristic of the winter festivities in the western world. Luis Bisbe (Málaga, 1965) is a keen observer of the paradoxes underlying everyday life. The starting point for his creations can be found in defamiliarisation and irony, and common themes include misunderstanding, contradictions and the questioning of evidence. In his inquiry, he develops completely new approaches to space, he frequently explores the relationship between the interior and the exterior, and he likes to use the exhibition area itself as artistic material. With his work on the illusions of perception, he has gradually moved away from representation, drawing ever closer to the physical world of objects. Bisbe has had individual exhibitions at the Santa Mònica Art Centre, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Valladolid, La Casa Encendida in Madrid, CAC in Málaga and, in 2003, Espai 13 of the Fundació Joan Miró, among other venues. His work forms part of the permanent collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and has been presented in group shows at various editions of ARCO, the 2010 Paiz Biennial of Art in Guatemala, the Image Forum Festival in Tokyo and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Niterói in Rio de Janeiro, and galleries and art centres in Berlin, Valencia, Lima and Sao Paulo, among other cities. At present, he lives and works in Barcelona.
Nadala at the Fundació Miró is an initiative that links local artists with the end-of-year festivities. Around this time of the year, the Foundation hosts an installation especially created by an artist, who offers his or her interpretation of a theme associated with the Christmas period. Since 2007, the Foundation has exhibited the creations of Perejaume, Ignasi Aballí, Tere Recarens, Antoni Llena, Fernando Prats, Jaume Pitarch, Eulàlia Valldosera, Fina Miralles and Rafel G. Bianchi and Regina Giménez.
