Silent Architectures by Xavier Monclús

Artist list

Xavier Monclús

Although houses can’t talk, I’ve always believed they can hear. They observe us silently with their window-eyes, and if we exchange looks with them they transmit all sorts of feelings to us: protection, security, beauty, culture and even joy. But they also communicate sadness and decadence, the reflection of a time now ended. Houses can hear and they make us hear too, no doubt because they are a reflection of our culture. Seeing them as individuals in our daily landscape, they mirror our internal dramas, hopes and longing. Because when it comes down to it, we are one and the same…

/ Xavier Monclús


Architectural fables
 
In order to define the work of Xavier Monclús, complex in its apparent simplicity, all we could come up with is an oxymoron: his work is based on what we might call a cultured ingenuity. The pieces shown here recall the delicate illustrations of the noucentista Pere Torné Esquius, immersing us in a world of sweet, domestic and welcoming serenity. Yet the schematic sense, awareness of volumes and cut of the profiles in these pieces (as if defined by an implacable light) evoke the outlook of the modern architects of the GATCPAC on rediscovering Mediterranean architecture in Ibiza, Xavier Monclús being familiar with its Menorcan variant.
 
Scale is essential when it comes to understanding these pieces. Are they large jewels or small houses? Plastic objects and animals are incorporated, disorienting us still further. Tubes, conduits and handles turn them into intriguing machines, announcing a movement, an action... a story. Textures are also very important, rough surfaces serving as a counterpoint to the smooth cleanness of the quaint technique.
 
These latest pieces by Xavier Monclús confirm the evolution we’ve been sensing for the last four years: a shift towards simplicity and abstraction. This refinement of forms does not exclude their figurative essence, sense of irony and the characteristic poetics of Monclús. In this respect, we have the impression that he has revisited or been reunited with the pieces produced at the start of his career, during his time at the Massana School in the 1990s, a period synonymous with enthusiasm for the development of jewellery as an independent artistic language. Simplicity, joy, skill and sensitivity join forces to raise a smile. The world of Xavier Monclús is one of fables and ingenuity, drawn and embodied in modestly precious objects, taking us back to the possibility of happiness, of reconciliation with our feelings and dreams.
 
/ Alex Mitrani, Fine Art Curator