ART-PRESENTATION: Juan Muñoz-Double Bind

Juan Muñoz,  Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project ArchiveJuan Muñoz was the most significant of the first generation of artists to achieve maturity in post-Franco Spain, and one of the most complex and individual artists working today. He created moody and challenging installations, most of which featured monochromatic human figures placed amid unnerving architectural spaces and often incorporating animatronics and sound.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: PLANTA Project Archive

The first showing in Spain of Juan Muñoz’s “Double Bind” is on presentation at PLANTA Project. The work was originally created as the second commission in The Unilever Series, created for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, and opened to the public on 12 June. Muñoz created a new installation that dramatically alters the 155 x35 m space. The work presents the viewer with a series of intriguing scenarios, which play on perspective and illusion, visibility and invisibility. “Double Bind” is divided into two parts. On the upper, bridge level the visitor sees, beyond a balcony rail, a patterned floor, through which two elevators rise and descend, locked in perpetual motion. The floor appears to be pierced with a series of large black holes or shafts, some of which are illusions. Below, the atmosphere darkens. Pools of light fall from the shafts, while the elevators glide into the subterranean gloom. Moving further into the lower space, it becomes apparent that the shafts above are inhabited by a cast of sculpted figures. Their expressions and actions remain unclear, as does our own role in their private drama. About Double Bind, Muñoz said that he wanted to give the Tate “an occasion for wonder”. The work has been re-installed in a great 2.200 square meter industrial ship, which has been specifically transformed to house this piece. The ship ise supported by an information center that provides context and information about the piece through drawings, images, documentary videos, sound clips, and notes by Juan Muñoz. The new showing is an opportunity for a larger audience to experience the theatrical, spatial and narrative language of one of the artists who led the return to the human form in sculpture.

Info: PLANTA, La Plana del Corb Industrial complex of La Plana del Corb de Sorigué, Balaguer, Province of Lleida, Catalonia, Duration: 30/10/17- , Previous Booking Required: tel: +34 600 600 003 or info@fundaciosorigue.com

Juan Muñoz,  Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive
Juan Muñoz, Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive

 

 

Juan Muñoz,  Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive
Juan Muñoz, Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive

 

 

Juan Muñoz,  Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive
Juan Muñoz, Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive

 

 

Left & Right: Juan Muñoz,  Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive
Left & Right: Juan Muñoz, Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive

 

 

Left & Right: Juan Muñoz,  Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive
Left & Right: Juan Muñoz, Double Bind (Installation View at PLANTA Project), PLANTA Project Archive

 

 

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