Bienal de Pontevedra

In this series, Saiz Ruiz reflects on violence and history. Inspired by the painting A Rest After Battle (1951) by Soviet painter Yuri Mikhalovich Neprintsev, the work presents life-size portraits of the soldiers who appear in the original painting, which shows a group of soldiers laughing after a battle. Saiz Ruiz steps away from the idealised image to raise a more complex question about violence, as his work does not seek to condemn or justify the soldiers, but rather to explore how the images of these characters, even though they are fictional, allow us to reflect on human nature in wartime.