A contemporary look at Hortalà art
Until July 13, the Vila Casas Foundation’s Volart Spaces offer the opportunity to immerse themselves in the creative universe of Lluís Hortalà, an Olot artist born in 1959. With a career covering cities like Barcelona, London and Brussels, Hortalà has explored a diversity of artistic techniques that include drawing, sculpture, ceramics and light installations.
An exhibition that challenges perception
Blessed by Antoni Vila Casas, the exhibition ‘Put the finger in the eye’ invites a deep reflection on the contradictions of the current perception and the operation of power institutions. Commissioner Teresa Grandas has designed an innovative journey, grouping both contemporary and past decades, not for chronology, but for ideas they share.
The concept of vision and knowledge
Hortalà has been dedicated to researching how art can produce and reproduce images, as well as question the limits of techniques such as trompe-l’œil. Through his works, the artist explores the nature of knowledge, his manifestation and the structures we use to make the world visible. Grandas emphasizes that “the work of Lluís Hortalà is a great trompe-l’œil, a conceptual artifice that raises us the trap and the illusion, to make us see what is not.”
Works that question reality
One of the prominent works, ‘Échafaud (Mundus muliebris)’, immediately captures attention and encourages reflection on the many dimensions of the gaze and power structures. This piece presents apparently marble stairs that are actually made of fabric and wood, demonstrating the artist’s skill in the game of appearances.
The influence of history on art
Hortalà’s works also commented on the transition between times, especially between the luxury of the aristocratic art of Versailles and the democratization of art during the French Revolution. Thus, ‘Encore a moment, Monsieur Le Bourreau, Encore a moment’ and ‘Guillotin (Louvre)’ explore the end of an age through the recreation of emblematic fireplaces.
The game of illusion and reality
Hortalà defies the line between reality and illusion in works such as ‘Ante la Ley’, which presents in detail the Spanish space of the National Gallery in London. This work, which causes doubts about the veracity of the gaze, is complemented by a piece that presents a barrier that obstructs the vision of the museum’s works, which urged a reflection on the nature of art and its institution.
Personal experiences and the vision of art
The influence of the world of mountaineering on his work is evident in pieces like ‘Into the Thin Air’, where a drawing by Everest becomes a metaphor for the difficulty of vision. Through various representations of glaciers, Hortalà examines the relationship between the original and the copy, reflecting on the losses involved in the reproduction of images.
A journey through artistic creation
The exhibition ‘Putting your finger’ is not only an example of art, but a journey that invites the viewer to explore the depths of artistic creation and to question the truths that are presented in front of our eyes. Hortalà’s works reveal not only his technique, but also the traps of art and fiction, leaving the public with a new perspective on his own gaze.