Bienal de Pontevedra

Carlos Fer presents a system of paintings suspended from a network of pulleys, ceramic counterweights crafted using traditional and raku techniques, metal pieces, and found objects. The composition functions as an interdependent organism, in which each element maintains its position through a network of shared tensions. The installation transforms the gesture of hanging a painting, usually concealed behind the simplicity of a nail, into a choreographic exercise that subverts the law of gravitation through artifice. The connections between the components evoke dynamics of cause and effect, recalling both the butterfly and domino effects. A slight alteration initiates a chain of adjustments, thus revealing a world structured by delicate equilibria. The paintings are made up of precisely cut fragments, measured to match the artist’s limb dimensions and body proportions, and then joined through stitching or structural assemblies. Painted with mineral pigments and natural binders, these fragments work as ‘mediating measuring’ devices, which incarnate the direct relationship between the body and the painting.