Zush "Psicomanualdigital", 1994
Exhibition
15.12.2000 - 04.03.2001
Tecura
finished
Zush is the artistic alter-ego that Albert Porta (Barcelona, 1946) adopted in 1968 after spending time in a psychiatric institution where he had been admitted due to his alleged “failure to adapt to the environment.” One of the other patients at the center gave him his new name. Zush’s work is based on the construction of a personal, autobiographical mythology that produces a fragile balance between apparent chaos and monstrosity on one hand, and rational composition on the other. To this end, the artist draws on a wide range of media – painting, drawing, graphics, assemblage, photography, collage, books and sound recordings – and also collaborates with creators from different disciplines – programmers, architects, writers and musicians.
The exhibition Zush. Tecura brought together over two hundred works organised into two sections. The first included his drawings and books from the mid sixties, the most significant paintings, sculptures and sound works of his career, and some of his more recent creations such as the interactive digital project Tecura and the talking bronze bells that opened the exhibition. The second section offered visitors the opportunity to directly experience the artist’s creative process through a workshop-laboratory of ideas and the presence of Zush himself, who lived and worked at the Museum for the duration of the exhibition.
The end of the exhibition coincided with the end of the character Zush, who from that time forth took on the identity of Evru, an artist, scientist and mystic interested in new technologies and digital languages.
The exhibition provided an opportunity to experience some aspects of the artist´s creative process at first hand thanks to a workshop-laboratory of ideas at the visitors´ disposal and the presence of the artist, who invited the spectators to create their own digital works, and was living and working at the Museum. He used various dwellings: three architectural projects carried out in Valencia, Sète and Madrid, two of them – Head House (1993) and Plasma House (2000) – developed in collaboration with the architect Enric Ruiz Geli. The amosphere was completed with a “mind aroma” and the sounds created by Víctor Nubla. By living in the exhibition, Zush questioned the conventional logic established by museums in the 20th century, using the public space as a private studio and altering the relation between art, artist and spectator with his presence.
Produced by: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) in coproduction with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
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artist
Albert Porta adopted the artistic personality of Zush in 1968 while a patient in a psychiatric institution. Admitted for ‘maladjustment to the environment’, it was here that a fellow patient baptized him with his new identity. Zush’s work is characterised by the construction of a personal and autobiographical mythology, based on images that seem to overflow and the creation of his own style of writing, leading to multiple parallel universes that maintain a subtle balance where the rationale of the composition barely keeps chaos in check.
The desire to desacralise the figure of the artist, together with his other diverse interests, has led Zush to use multiple supports and to collaborate regularly with creators of different disciplines, such as designers, writers and musicians.
An example of outsider art, the series of works presented here is connected to the psychedelic movement and its aspiration to open the doors of perception. Zush is interested in exploring imaginary states in which categories are blurred and different worlds are created.
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The desire to desacralise the figure of the artist, together with his other diverse interests, has led Zush to use multiple supports and to collaborate regularly with creators of different disciplines, such as designers, writers and musicians.
An example of outsider art, the series of works presented here is connected to the psychedelic movement and its aspiration to open the doors of perception. Zush is interested in exploring imaginary states in which categories are blurred and different worlds are created.
artists
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