My artistic project moves in a landscape between utopia and facts, with inspirations drawn from science fiction, visions of the future, technology, architecture, science and space exploration, to mention just a few sources. The inner core of the project relates to the great philosophical questions surrounding the origin and the evolution of Mankind, and the need to find the balance between fact and fiction in this arena.
“How has Mankind been able to move from picking lice off each other’s backs, to a world where we build spaceships and send them out into the waste and desolate space?”
It is from populist medias such as journals, television, the internet, films and books that I harvest inspiration, and it is from a populistic point of view that I wish to utilize this material in order to throw light on contemporary tendencies. There is no doubt that we are living through exciting times where the world is experiencing an economic, a climatic and a structural shift of power. While the world’s population is increasing and our natural resources are being depleted, rapid technological progress is laying a new platform for our modern life.
About the artist:
Javier Barrios was born in Mexico (1979) and currently lives in Oslo, Norway. He received his diploma from Statens Kunst Akademi in Oslo and from School of Visual Arts in New York. His work has been subject of several exhibitions in Europe and the US, including Kunstnernes Hus, Trafo Kunsthall, LYNX Gallery, Outlet Gallery, Muskegon Museum of Art, Triumph and Disaster Gallery, Schaufenster Gallery, Rod Bianco Gallery and Galleri K. Barrios has also recently finished residencies at ISCP in New York and Galeria MARSO in Mexico City. He is also editor of VECTOR Productions.
In residency: September – November, 2016
