VIDEO:Justin Caguiat-Zodiac Machine

Justin Caguiat’s idiosyncratic style is informed by far reaching reference points, including science fiction literature, the baroque-folk hybrid aesthetic of early Filipino Catholic Santos, 60s psychedelia, les Nabis, Ukiyo-E, graphic art and the historical legacy of Manga. In scale and format, they can be read like murals and landscapes, and while not clearly depicting a narrative, they have a reverential or devotional atmosphere akin to a fresco. Though suggestive of Romanticism, Caguiat’s paintings are not illusionistic: they demonstrate rather than conceal their palimpsestal evolution.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Madrid Archive

“Zodiac Machine” is an exhibition by Justin Caguiat, that unfolds in two parts, beginning in Madrid and continuing at the Serpentine Gallery in London. The exhibition consists of a site-specific installation across the Santa Ana y la Esperanza Church, Moratalaz Market, a notable example of Brutalist, Modernist architecture ,and surrounding public spaces. Caguiat’s works spill across public spaces, squares, shopfront windows and walls, and into the Moratalaz market – a two-storey building where the ground floor hosts various food stalls and local businesses. Several unused units are occupied by the contents of the exhibition.

The church, designed by the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac (1913-2006), was constructed between 1965 and 1971 during a period of liturgical and architectural reforms following the Second Vatican Council. The encouragement of ‘full, conscious and active participation’ led to architecture aligned with Modernist principles of pure and simplified form: horizontalization was favoured over verticality; the altar became the focal point; radial forms privileged the congregation. The church’s cavernous nave was designed with three convex curves to democratise acoustics across the whole room, and geometric courtyards and classrooms were constructed to flank the chapel.

An important early inspiration for the conception of “Zodiac Machine” was the Catedral de Justo, a large religious structure in Mejorada del Campo, built single-handedly by Justo Gallego Martínez between 1960 and 2021. After contracting tuberculosis, Gallego vowed to dedicate his life to building the cathedral if he recovered, as a shrine to “Our Lady of the Pillar,” with a complete vision of its geometry, morphology, and construction from the moment of its conception. Justo, with no formal architectural or technical training, built the entire structure using recycled and found materials.

Caguiat’s artworks installed across Moratalaz – consisting of painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, film, and sound – were developed as a single, unified vision made expressly with Justo’s philosophy in mind. They respond to Justo’s unfettered creative freedom as a liability rather than an ideal. Zodiac Machine draws from the wayward architect’s total devotion, producing forms that are both generative and untenable.

Info: Curator: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Santa Ana y la Esperanza Church, Moratalaz Market, Madrid, Spain, Duration: 4/3-1/4/2026

 

 

Trailer: Justin Caguiat, Zodiac Machine, 2026, © Justin Caguiat, Courtesy the artist and Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Madrid