MELK

1217
Javier Barrios
ANTHROPOS

Javier Barrios - Anthropos at MELK 2017

Book launch and exhibition
December 8 – 12 2017

ANTHROPOS
(Greek for human, but the real meaning is “someone who looks up to the sky”)

Anthropos is an artistic elaboration of the topic of human impact on geology and eco-systems.

Javier Barrios’s latest artist book project is based on the proposed new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene (Greek for man-made), which describes the human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystem. The proposal has received broad support from key researchers and institutions within the field, and it is desired to date the beginning of the epoch at the first successful nuclear explosion (Trinity in 1945).

Through history, man has gone from fearing nature to dominate it. The technology has developed at record speed, and its potential use has become one of our biggest threats. But can technology be our rescue at the same time? Space research has entered a new era, no longer motivated by political positioning, but rather by an understanding of humanity’s need for a way of escape.

With the book Anthropos, Barrios aims to present a dynamic, potent and chaotic representation of the human activity, and set it against nature, which in comparison seems somewhat more still and balanced. He does this by incorporating fragments of human development from primitive to today’s high-tech society through the usage of found photographs, which he has collected over years and which forms part of his artistic practice.

By usage of found photographs, which he has collected over years and that forms part of his artistic practice, Barrios incorporates fragments of human development from the primitive to today’s high-tech society, thus reflecting the contrast between nature and human activity.

The book is a result of a two month residency at Galeria MARSO in Mexico City in 2016, and will be presented at MELK in combination with an exhibition that will consist of photographs and sculptures.

Anthropos has been made possible in collaboration with designer and publisher William Løwe Stormdal (Pseudonym Publisher) and writer Carlos Gonzalez.

Javier Barrios currently lives in Oslo, Norway. He received his diploma from Oslo National Academy of the Arts and from School of Visual Arts in New York. His work has been subject of several exhibitions in Europe and the US, including Kunstnernes Hus, Trafo Kunsthall, LYNX Gallery, Outlet Gallery, Muskegon Museum of Art, Triumph and Disaster Gallery, Schaufenster Gallery, Rod Bianco Gallery and Galleri K. Barrios has also recently finished residencies at ISCP in New York and Galeria MARSO in Mexico City. He is also editor of VECTOR Productions.

MELK