“The Invention of Distances”: Spanish Artist César Barrio’s Exhibition in Lisbon Explores the Convergence of Science and Art.

This content was published on June 06, 2023 – 15:10

06 June 2023 – 15:10

Lisbon, June 6 (EFE).- The convergence between science and art, colors and space are the central axis of the exhibition “The Invention of Distances”, a sample by the Spanish César Barrio that opens its doors this Tuesday in Lisbon.

Until July 16, the National Museum of Natural History and Science in the Portuguese capital is hosting an exhibition consisting of two large-format paintings, three sculptures and three videos with which the Asturian artist reflects how the gaze affects our perception of the world.

“The reality that we see is not something that is unique, it is a perception. It has a lot to do with the creative process of painting. So, it could be said that ‘The Invention of Distances’ has that theme of reflection on what is the gaze. On the other hand, in painting, on canvas, on the surface, one tries to merge so that distances do not exist,” he explained in statements to EFE.

The artist also defends that the look is, for him, “the fundamental weapon of the painter”, so that “one is always reflecting on what it is to look, to try to get to see something as if he had never seen it before” but under the cultural influence in which it is found.

In the end, “abstract images emerge that one doesn’t know if they are images reminiscent of a microcosm or a macrocosm,” he adds.

The abstract art exhibition includes videos made in collaboration with the contemporary music quartet Sigma Project Quartet.

Barrio, who lives and works in Madrid and Lisbon, specifies that the production is the “synthesis of all that baggage” acquired from his work in Portugal for more than a decade.

Precisely, the artist has studios in both Iberian capitals, which allows him to affirm that “although there is quite a difference in terms of roots” and a “different cultural sensibility” between both countries, “at the same time they have a lot in common”.

Barrio held his first exhibition in 1989, graduated in architecture from the University of Navarra in 2004, and has taught as a visiting professor at art schools in Pamplona, ​​Zaragoza, and Toledo.

He plans to open another show in Tavira, in southern Portugal, in mid-August. EFE

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