The Catalan artist presents in Barcelona his first solo exhibition entitled NEW ORDER
There is art that traps you. It’s not easy, often art becomes something fleeting, something that we almost take for granted, whether we see it on a screen or hanging on a wall. But there are times when you come across a kind of art that stays with you. You arrive, you find it and when you leave, it leaves your side and settles in your memory. I repeat that this rarely happens and when it does it is delightful, even when what you have found is disturbing and turbulent. The artist Unax Lafuente has always managed to stand out above the rest thanks to his dark, shadowy, ghostly world. His mind seems to be the refuge of fiendishly attractive and sensual creatures. The music industry can’t help but fall into his dark cave and Unax has managed to develop visual projects with Arca or Honey Dijon. Now comes his moment, with the exhibition NEW ORDER that will be presented this June in Barcelona, Unax shows us for the first time alone his most intimate and visceral pieces characterized by a cryptic kaleidoscopic universe capable of dragging anyone who sees it. Welcome to the most twisted corners of Unax Lafuente’s mind.
Unax, congratulations on the exhibition “NEW ORDER”. How do you feel in the days leading up to the opening?
I am very excited, it’s been in my mind for a long time but I am confident enough now to properly show my work. I am also very happy I get to do it alongside my friends, they have been key supportive and I am moved by that reason. This is how things are done. If you think about it great movements and art scenes emerge by doing, gathering and putting ideas together. So I’m very lucky I have an artistic crew I can take things into term with. The stands have been made by Alexei Cerrone, and the exhibition managed by Lina Yasmine Sastimdur and Marta Custic. It’s been a lot of work, but finally here we are.
“NEW ORDER” is your first solo exhibition. It is a very important moment in your career, but I would like to know what the “NEW ORDER” project means to you in your career.
I usually work with other people, I portrait. But this is the first time I get to work only with my thoughts and make it public. I wanted to dig in and just create something for myself, like an inner conversation and translate that into images. Also the structure and language I am using for this series is way more institutionalized and organized, it’s a wholesome idea made of individual artworks, I like to think about it as an album, where the tracks speak separately following a common rhythm/structure. I am happy to get to do it first in my city too, I think a lot of mutuals and friends will be able to come and see the project themselves. With current technologies and platforms a lot of interaction gets lost, it’s important to keep media ownable outside social media.
I would like to go deeper into your relationship with art. When did you start creating your visual language? Do you think your artistic side is something innate in you?
Art is inherently in everyone, all of us have the capacity to create, to register our perspective and life experience through words, paintings, music. After all, art for me is more a sociological tool for recording a certain time and context. We can tell a lot about a society by its artistic movements, who was in power, or who was commissioning that art. My visual language is very much in the making. At the end of the day it really is a lot of ideas and material practices put together. I wouldn’t like to have a defined one yet, I like to think of art identity as something that morphs through time, it goes along within the individual, their interests and knowledge.
I can’t help but be curious to know what you were like as a child, what kind of teenager was Unax Lafuente?
I’ve always been someone very introverted, I wouldn’t make many friends so I hid in storytelling and entertainment media. I loved to watch movies, documentaries, music videos and read magazines. And I guess it’s been very educational, a great part of my influences come from that time and have matured since. I would not change anything in my life, everything we are is defined by our experiences, and I didnt like to be lonely but I think it provided me with a lot of imagination and courage to do whatever I want to do, under my terms and the people I choose to do it with. My childhood provided me with a thick skin.
Your art is closely related to music, how would you define the link you have created over time between your visual language and music?
I am always on my headphones, and part of my work in the sound and visual arts collective TORO i run alongside my friends Engalanan and Softchaos is, literally to translate their sound to visuals under my perspective. I always try to do that in my personal work too, there’s a lot of movement in my images and when I photoshoot I always ask the talent to give a motion range so I can capture the moment. That’s when the silhouette appeared to me. Motion adds something up when it comes to visuals, it really can change the scene, so it’s something I have in mind while creating.
You have worked for singers like ARCA or HONEY DIJON, but I would like to know if there is any other artist you have always liked and whose music has accompanied you throughout your life.
There are so many… I don’t think I could name only one but if I work with someone I’d like to have some sort of connection first. A conversation can give you many clues of how someone likes to be seen, what their motivations are, etc. The outcome is always better.
“NEW ORDER” aims to create a dialogue with the spectator, what feelings would you like your work to provoke in the audience?
I want the audience to complete the artwork with their view, all of them can provide something interesting. So i try not to dictate a specific answer even so my intentions can lead to self reflection in general. I am more interested in contrasts, so I’m hoping someone can surprise me with a fresh point of view after seeing my work, something I was not able to see or didn’t think of.
I want to know a bit more about the aesthetics of “NEW ORDER”. Why did you choose such a kaleidoscopic style?
It is part of the visual identity of this series, and something I’m constantly exploring. Balance and composition is something inherently current in nature, mathematics and art. This technique provides a mirroring, a correlation and consonance to the past, New Order responds to my perspective on the cultural, social and political shift we are experiencing. Motivated by globalism, the death of the international status quo and revolutionary technologies that will change very solid concepts all along our social structure. I think we need to be ready for change, and really analyze what we are willing to tolerate and what we don’t want to give up. Incorporating this element in my work specially these paintings made sense to me.
Would you be able to choose just one of the pieces in “NEW ORDER”? If so, could you tell me more about it?
“Maitasunaren harresia” is the most impactful for me, maybe because of the color and extent of the artwork, its really big and very detailed, and it really depictures my thoughts on human behavior and its nature for self destruction. It somehow reminds me of the Vendôme Column in Paris. Half of the composition is a vivid red and the top is pure black with some shadows. I integrated some human figures, its like their warm and humanity is being drained, it inevitably goes downwards. It’s a frame of a total collapse.
After taking the plunge and presenting this solo exhibition, what is the next challenge for Unax Lafuente?
I am interested in the art world, it really provides a wide range of creative freedom. But i feel in a good place, i would like to keep working alongside my friends, mutuals and people i respect creatively.
Unax LaFuente, first solo exhibition “NEW ORDER”,
on June 20 at GalleryC6
C/ Corretger 5, Barcelona.
