Five Seated Figures

Juan Muñoz

Madrid, Spain, 1953 - Santa Eulària des Riu, Ibiza, Spain, 2001
  • Date: 
    1996
  • Material: 
    Mirror and resin
  • Technique: 
    Cast
  • Dimensions: 
    Central part: 102 x 55,5 x 82 cm / Left part: 110 x 65 x 72 cm / Background right part: 107 x 72 x 68,8 cm / Background left part: 110 x 68 x 60 cm / Right part : 107 x 67 x 70 cm / Mirror: 176 x 192 cm
  • Category: 
    Sculpture, Installation
  • Entry date: 
    2009
  • Register number: 
    AD05433

Juan Muñoz was a special case in Spanish sculpture in the 1980s and 1990s because of the complex cosmopolitan character of his artistic personality, which took form not only in his plastic work output (drawings and sculpture) but also in his work in essays, creative writing and sound recordings. His work on the human figure and creation of architectural and theatre environments gave rise to his Conversation Pieces series, of which Five Seated Figures is part. This work is very representative of the sculptor’s particular expressive world, in which the human figure seems to be activated by theatrical elements such as the distribution of the characters, arranged in a horseshoe towards the potential viewer, or the mirror, in reference to concepts connected to voyeurism and narcissism. Both the arrangement of the characters and that of the mirror are references to the paradox in Muñoz’s sculpture: while to the viewers it may look like a conversation scene, they can only take part in it from a distance, as if they are facing a theatrical performance (there is no place reserved for them, they have to remain standing, outside the scene) or virtually (in the mirror, which brings them into the scene, but only as a reflection).

Carmen Fernández Aparicio

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