Hector castells matutano
FANTÔME,
PARIS-B is pleased to announce the solo exhibition « Fantôme » by Hector Castells Matutano at its PB PROJECT space.
Hector Castells Matutano’s practice is built upon a visual journal based on collecting images on slides that he finds or produces himself using analog photographic processes. These images are then mounted on various mediums, including films, projections, performances, or collages.
Here, the sequences (or strips) of film, born out of improvisation and intuition, allow the artist to reframe cinematic editing by removing the film from the reel and fixing it onto an object that resides between sculpture and photography.
The series of works presented in this exhibition consists of images mounted on recycled lightboxes (négatoscopes). The 6 pieces, including 4 photograms and 2 collages, are composed of strips of slide film of different formats.
The artwork F for Fantôme (2023) references Orson Welles’ film « F for Fake » which explores the story of one of the greatest art forgers in history, Elmer de Hory, questioning the authorship and authenticity of artworks preserved in museums and collections worldwide. The artifice of this piece consists of creating a kind of X-ray of overlapping objects on a single layer, blending the real, the imagined, and the dreamlike.
I can’t see anything.
A transparent layer burns my eyes: it’s everywhere. Maybe it’s watching me.
I sense that it’s there, but it’s still invisible. If I undress it, will it become visible?
It’s like a constant wind amplified by gravity.
By capturing feathers, plastics, and stains on the film, Hector Castells Matutano aims to suspend time in this series of pieces, creating a space (or a void) where he can give a spectral presence to these objects that attract him with their lightness and translucency.
« My artwork is built on a visual dynamic, an ecology based on the collection of images that I either make or find. I work with those images in order to create the birth of a story, of visual experiences. I transform them through collages, texts, installations and colorization […]
[…] All that to combine, without subverting, the sensibilities involved in abstraction and the image as document. This research is for me, a way to question alterity and a way to explore the synergy within disparity. It enables us, I think, to reconsider the concepts of community and our relationship with the other, within real or perceptive spaces. »
Catalogue of Works
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BIOGRAPHIE
Hector Castells Matutano is a multimedia artist, musician, performer, and filmmaker born in Barcelona in 1978. He initially graduated in biology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and later obtained a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London, in the Sculpture department. This sensitive background is reflected in his work, which encompasses various approaches. He has exhibited in numerous institutions and galleries, and he now lives and works in Paris as an artist in residence at Poush Manifesto.