Inauguration of the exhibition “Man and Other Animals” by Joan Priego

Joan Priego is a Catalan sculptor who works mostly with wood. He consistently develops figurative line, deconstructing the idea of a whole and morally stable personality. Staying true to the material, Priego doesn’t mask the nature of the recycled wood. On the contrary, he highlights it. 

Old used wooden fragments, glued elements, and coarse surfaces; his figures are not monolithic. They are assembled, attached, and asymmetrical. They are not harmonically completed. Priego’s man is not centered and unstable: it is a being where collide impulse and prohibition, instinct and social role, strength and vulnerability. His sculptures do not depict the body as an object; they visualize the consciousness in a state of conflict.  

This exhibition is presented as a natural science museum. Here, the species and forms of existence are represented. Amidst the variety of exhibit items, man, with his consciousness, state of division, incompleteness, and fragmentation, is the object of study.

In this pseudo museum, Priego researches not the anatomy but the inner dynamics: instincts, feelings, fears, and defense mechanisms. His characters look like they went through and survived trauma: the surfaces are rough and uneven, as if with healed scars. 

We provoke the viewer to have the courage to confront explicit, imperfect, and uncombed; to look at what is usually hidden beneath the civilized surface. This museum doesn’ showcase rare species; instead, it offers to see our own nature, unfiltered.

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