Der Spaziergang
In Alain Urrutia’s oeuvre, paintings establish a dialogue among themselves using a common language: a collective memory that is revealed through the very act of painting and that it is uncovered through the images. Their visual references, which are part of the artist’s imaginary in a direct or indirect way, are carefully selected and combined. The use of a monochrome palette and the compositional elements merge in an exquisite way with a conceptual narrative in which numerous layers of interpretation are revealed so as to create new readings of a collective and fragmented memory.
The close relation to modern literature that can be noticed in the main part of Urrutia’s work is a tool for a better understanding of his paintings, which oscillate between the pictorial and the intertextual.
This time, the artist is inspired by Der Spaziergang (The Walk, 1917), a poetic prose work by Swiss author Robert Walser, whose main character writes about everything he sees and feels while he does a promenade through his hometown, Biel. Urrutia presents groups of images formed by three small-format works each, which have been conceived to be installed separately to avoid the idea of a triptych. This action of separating the paintings emphasize the concept of walk, implies time and obliges us to go across the space to see each of the works. The cartography created by their display, which generates an imaginary walk, ultimately aims to challenge the viewer to go along amongst the different paintings within a space, a kind of transit expedition or peripatetic journey.
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 4.) (2/3) 21 x 15 cm.
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 4.) (21 x 15 // 21 x 15 // 21 x 15 cm.)
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 3.) (2/3) 23 x 17 cm.
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 3.) (15 x 21 // 23 x 17 // 15 x 21 cm.)
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 3.) (1/3) (15 x 21 cm.)
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 5.) (23 x 17 // 21 x 15 // 21 x 15 cm.)
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 5.) (1/3) 23 x 17 cm.
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 2.) (21 x 15 // 17 x 23 // 21 x 15 cm.)
Der Spaziergang. Berlin 2019. (GROUP 2.) (1/3) Oil on linen, 21 x 15 cm.