Sculpture, Installation and Objetcs

The effect resulting from the interaction of the public with the works, as well as the concepts of time and space are some of the most important discursive elements within the investigations and reflections that Ernesto Benítez proposes with his artistic praxis. It is not strange, then, that he appeals to sculpture and artistic installation as expressive resources of great weight in his aesthetic proposal. The solutions presented in these installations have been and are diverse: Among them we can find, for example, interactive installations in which the spectators, without knowing it, leave something of theirs -physically speaking- in the works while they walk through them; video installations that are projected on the spectators themselves, making them involuntary participants in the very discourse of the works; kinetic installations (sculptural installations) that incorporate audio and sound, site-specific installations or environmental works designed for specific spaces that exploit the characteristics and aura of various contexts; installations with electronic devices and incorporated digital programming; Art installations conceived from found objects or with documents and personal objects, Installations composed of sculptural pieces or objects manipulated and recontextualized; Installations that oppose, contrast or complement the analogical-digital or online-offline environments with the use, among others, of rapid response codes (QR Codes)… or, art installations with simultaneous streaming transmissions (video) via the Internet that are then projected in the exhibition spaces integrating physical and digital works to reflect on the boundaries between the real and the virtual and to dialogue with the notions of time and space or on the very timelessness and non-place.

Sculpture, Site-specific Installation and Environmental Art

On some occasions we have even noticed how important the three-dimensional or object element is for this artist, even when it is a question of two-dimensional works. Ernesto moves on the margins of three-dimensionality, providing solutions and spatial concepts that accentuate the discursive projection of his different proposals, his series of works or his exhibitions.

Ernesto Benítez uses diverse materials in his installation works and his sculptures. Many of them are of organic origin and are related to fire and the burnt. Thus we can find objects, installations and sculptures made with ashes from different combusted sources and soot: cigarette ashes, incense ashes, burnt books (history books, philosophy books, scientific texts and others), ashes from extinct and abandoned bonfires, forest fires and all kinds of detritus generated by fire (including those from incinerators and furnaces, both cremation and artistic casting). He uses them, recontextualized, together with other materials of different and very particular origin such as spider webs, dust and dirt that he carefully extracts from churches, museums and other paradigmatic places. All of these materials are ideological components that the artist collects and classifies with a discipline and a quasi-alchemic rigor: salt, clay, vegetable or mineral coal, dried and encapsulated spikes and flowers, wood, glass, metal (bronze, copper, brass, tin, lead…), textiles, and other minerals (sulfur, lime) or gold, silver, sea pearls, diamonds and others typical of the jewelry trade, family inheritance.