The work of Iñaki Álvarez derives from performance and takes place in areas including video, photography, action art and the performing arts. Two constant themes running through his work are the body and the word. From the former comes action, while the latter brings him to poetry, the voice, text and reflection on the expressive ability and limitations of words.

Iñaki Álvarez's modus operandi has a certain amount in common with collecting. The collector uses their reunifying activity to recreate a metonym for capturing the whole (completing a subset as a metonym for the universal set). Álvarez compiles and recompiles without worrying too much about either motivations or subsequent uses: "First I act, then I think," he says. Then, he puts the material he has collected together more or less randomly until the combination bursts somewhere, revealing a new meaning or creating a kind of fascinating, inexplicable attraction.