Estrujados (GUERNICA - XL) [Scrunched (GUERNICA – XL)] Series

 Javier Arce (Santander, 1973) investigates drawing as a form of expanded language within contemporary art and its capacity to establish dialogues with other mediums so as to broaden the limits of the discipline. Guernica – XL is part of the Estrujados (Scrunched) series, in which the artist reflects on the meaning of art history’s great works, which, owing to their constant reproduction, have become “throwaway” cultural products.  

The work is made with a marker pen on tear-proof paper and bears the appearance of a faulty photocopy. It is conceived to be creased, put in a plastic bag and packaged in a cardboard box, as if it were just another commodity. According to the artist, this process “ironically imitates an avant-garde strategy in its avoidance of craft, virtuosity, good materials and the perfect finish to become distanced from advertising, design, décor and fashion, which paradoxically took on the refinements great Art had left behind”.