Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

La diferencia. Venus [The Difference. Venus]

Image caption
JUAN LUIS MORAZA

La diferencia. Venus [The Difference. Venus]

  • 1988
  • Copper
  • 20 x 36 x 24,5 cm
  • Cat. E_145
  • Acquired in 2009
By:
Isabel Tejeda

Moraza's sculpture La diferencia. Venus [The Difference. Venus] (1988) marks a continuation of the creative process he began during his studies and which he later brought to the CVA collective. The neat modules forming the piece give it the appearance of a minimalist object, a conception that is only contradicted by the tarnished surface of the copper sheets. These pieces —with their volumetric plays and spatial voids— provoke the same reflections on the aesthetics of the sculptural object that is to be found in Moraza's later work. He explores the relationship between the material comprising the work, its structure and the limits with the space in which it is placed or exhibited.

Under Moraza's gaze, the evocative and representational capacity of the art object is diminished; there is no Venus to be seen in this piece, not even in the form of a metaphor or allusion. In this way, Moraza draws our attention to the paradox of the title and the artistic game in which he is a participant, referencing a postmodernism that assumes that the importance of the work no longer lies in the work itself, but in what stands behind it, that is to say the concept that it conceals and embodies.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
Juan Luis Moraza
Vitoria-Gasteiz 1960

Juan Luis Moraza has a BFA and a PhD (1994) from the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao. Together with Marisa Fernández he set up the CVA collective (1979-1985), from which, during an intense period of sculptural work, he interrogated the limits of art, reinterpreting the signs —such as frames or pedestals— that define the artwork. In addition to his sculptural work, Moraza also lectures at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Vigo. He previously taught at the University of the Basque Country, the School of Fine Arts in Cuenca, the École d'Art de Marseille, the University of Tirana and the Institute of Aesthetics and Art Theory in Madrid.

Moraza's conceptual discourse centres on the notion of the representational crisis in the art object and in social, political and individual ideologies. At his exhibition 'República' ['Republic'], held at the Museo Reina Sofía (2014), Moraza said that 'a work of art does not mean anything. Rather, it makes one say, think, feel'. It is a phrase that sums up much of the artist's work, which contains clear allusions to Meret Oppenheim, Joseph Beuys and Marcel Broodthaers. Moraza takes apparently commonplace objects and alters or reproduces them in incongruous materials. In this way, he re-presents them to the viewer and re-arranges them in the specific setting of the museum, with all its symbolic charge, complexity and inescapable audience involvement. The result of this communion is what Moraza calls 'implexities'. In this way, he seeks to provoke both the eye and the mind, using simple but effective (and even dramatic) devices.

Juan Luis Moraza represented Spain at Expo'92 in Seville, the São Paulo Biennial (1994) and the Venice Biennale (2001). He has been awarded grants from Banesto (1990) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1991) and in 2004 he won the Gure Artea Prize (2004). His solo exhibitions include 'Implejidades' ['Implexities'], at the Montehermoso Cultural Centre (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2009); 'Anesteticas. Algologos' ['Anaesthetics. Algologues'], at the Andalusia Contemporary Art Centre (Seville, 1998), and 'República' ['Republic'], at the Museo Reina Sofía. Moraza is also an essayist and coordinator at the magazine Acción Paralela.

Isabel Tejeda

 
«Juan Luis Moraza», Galeria Oliva Arauna (Madrid, 1987-1988).
Vv.Aa. Juan Luis Moraza, Madrid, Galería Oliva Arauna, 1988. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3.