Visceralia

De Ciencias Naturales (The Natural Sciences)  is the first exhibition of a personal work by Argentinian-born visual artist, designer and art director Juan Gatti, its germ and starting point being a commission by Pedro Almodovar of a series of images for the ambientation of his 2011 film The Skin I Live In. With this series, the artist:

“Reclaims his own principles present in his whole body of work: a clear sense of beauty alien to any tendencies or imperant fashions, respect and use of the different aesthetics accumulated in our cultural baggage and construction of a particular world in which the essential is the communicative sense that every work of art, fitted or not to a purpose, must always possess.” Puntafina News

The most captivating feature of this work is precisely the skillful combination of two nineteenth century obsessions: anatomy and the taxonomy of plants. The remarkable preciosism in scientific illustrations of the period producing works of astonishing beauty, in spite of an overbearing sense of foreboding: the inevitable mortality of the flesh.

Here, open bodies stripped of their skin parade lush and vibrant viscera, their shapes and colouring mimicking the surrounding flora and fauna. A strangely paradisiacal landscape of fluidity and oneness between the human, animal and vegetable reigns.

The soul is also present, in the butterfly wings traditionally linked with death and resurrection in the higher spiritual realm. The body is, once the constraints of physicality (skin/chrysalid) are abandoned, in permanent communication with its essence as both of the earth and divine. Indeed, the closed eyes in the corpse-like figures speak of an experience of the beyond,  that which exists removed from our physical perception of life through the senses and in communion with dreams and death.

Quartered bodies seem to rejoice at their imminent disintegration and embrace their disappearance,  their lattice-work outlines barely encaging unstoppable nature and its cycle of decay, death and rebirth. There is no separation present, as every twig and vein entwine into a network of life, permanently connected and in constant, fluid “dialogue”.

The greatest success in De Ciencias Naturales, is this highly original and thoroughly modern reinterpretation of old themes, symbols and motifs in an exuberant landscape wildly referencing art history from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dali. It is hallucinatory, yet serene, unsettling yet joyous, playfully inviting us to partake of this exquisite danse macabre in our own unique way.

To enhance the experience of Gatti’s work, listen to Alberto Iglesias’ soundtrack to The Skin I live In.