Elena Asins

Elena Asins. Fragments of Memory.  From June 15 to October 31, 2011

Manuel Borja-Villel, Director of the Museo Reina Sofía: After The Pamplona Encounters it made sense to focus on Elena Asins, one of the most unique and consistent names in contemporary Spanish art. Her work has something that’s difficult to grasp at first glance. Some of her pieces require time and need to be traversed because of their size. Her works, the pages of the books and the paintings are like a music score.

Elena Asins, artist: I think that all art is a reading; you never see a work in just one go. You see it fragment by fragment, even though it’s instantaneous. But in my work it’s much more obvious, because it’s serial. It’s a process that develops in space, some changes that obey a law with its own algorithm. Then they decompose or deconstruct until you get to the line again.

Manuel Borja-Villel: so her work is performative and evolving. It’s never closed, but it develops over time and must always be re-enacted by the viewer.

Elena Asins: we’re not only talking about something visual, but also something extremely deep. A machine is a machine, but it’s a magnificent machine. I’ve written several things about the relationship between the brain and the computer. A computer works like our brain, but our brain is infinitely superior.

Manuel Borja-Villel: synthesis in this case is not synonymous with an eclecticism of forms, but quite the opposite. Synthesis in this case means the dissolution of limits.

Elena Asins: when I make a video about a letter from Wittgenstein to Engelmann, I try to make the video have some relationship with that, just like when I work with the I-Ching, which is something that is almost sacred. I deal with it differently, too.

Manuel Borja-Villel: it’s her own contribution, completely separate from the art of gesture, from showy art, from brushstrokes.

Elena Asins: careful! Back then we did the programming, not like now. You didn’t just click the mouse. Now everything is programmed for you.

Manuel Borja-Villel: with Elena, the geometry is never mechanistic; it never fell into the positivism of some kinetic or optical practices. Instead it always sought out personal experience.

Elena Asins: we’re talking about a different time and space. Not a physical, tactile space. It’s another kind of time and another kind of space.

Manuel Borja-Villel: you don’t just see a music score with your eyes; perceiving it is not merely optical. The perception has to be interior, spiritual and physical at the same time, like when music or poetry is recited out loud.

Elena Asins: I’m going to quote a text that I always have at home. I move a lot and I always take it with me. It’s a text by Ludwig Wittgenstein that says: “My ideal is a certain coolness. A temple providing a setting for the passions without meddling with them.”