After his latests exhibitions, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the 30th São Paulo Biennial, Fernando Ortega brings together on this occasion a series of works assembled from the observation and study of music, fragility and tension in order to combine them with air, electricity, and glass, as well as musical instruments and insects; he places the audience as main actors of these interventions. With this he seeks to create ways of establishing connections that provoke moments and personal conclusions in each spectator.

A rush of air will exalt the fragility of Vacancy, a spiderweb on a rabbit-ears antenna; while a ladder, K5-Hidden Peak, will have no other function but to bring us closer to a musical triangle—a probable emitter of a sound.

Through these compositions Fernando Ortega allows for the unforeseen; thus the expectation that one of his works might produce a sound goes along with the impossibility of approaching it. As it occurs with Adagio Sostenuto, a guitar connected to a high voltage energiser as if it were a metronome that allows for electricity to be presented, concurrently, as a musical idea and as an obstacle to reach the guitar. This way the temptation, together with the disillusion of the spectator, will elicit the activation of the work at a personal level.

In Meeting Point II, a laser pointing at the eyes of a fly will go through the gallery’s reception area. Framed by the reception window, the fly will spy over this work and living space, just as she will be observed from the outside. In the series Harmonic Variations, balance will be maintained thanks to the counterweight created between the harmonica, the glass, and the wall that holds them. The fragility of the materials create a constant tension before the possibility of activation by the public. In these two pieces, as in all of his work, the implicit, the unfinished and the assumed are the possible conductors of the message that the piece seeks to transmit.

These are the connections which Ortega works with, those which synthesise his meticulous research and the contemplative nature of his search. The unforeseen and unexpected become an event that includes surprise as one more element of his work

Biography

Born 1971 in Mexico City, where he lives and works.

His main solo exhibitions include: Fuite/Leak, Palais de Tokyo, Paris France (2012); Fernando Ortega, MUCA CU, Mexico City (2008); Fernando Ortega, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2008); Fernando Ortega, Lisson New Space, London (2004); Winter Falls, Bonner Kunstverein (2005); Fernando Ortega, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2004); Project Room, ARCO 04 Madrid, Spain (2004).

He has also participated in various international collective exhibitions, such as: The Imminence of Poetics, 30th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2012); All of This and Nothing. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US (2011); The Wilderness, Miami Art Museum, Miami, US (2011); The Moon is an Arrant Thief, The David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK (2010).