Rascacielos
Solo exhibition / public intervention / performance
marca.blanca, Madrid 2020
"... could be disseminated as a subtle baroque urbanistic work, which does not stop evoking that iconic image of New York of the burning skyscrapers; and suddenly, the sound of an elevator in continuous movement. Something wonderful about Yuri is that subtle game in which he mixes planes of reality, dream and desire. From a distance it is difficult to distinguish the background music of his gardens: the sound of an old elevator, a freight elevator or an elevator (why not a descender?) that goes up and down eternally from one point to another with some stop on some floor of one of those skyscrapers... Yuri's insinuations do not intend to mark a style, to define a way of inhabiting a space, it is rather a matter of imagining impossible ways of thinking about sound landscapes and textual, sentimental, emotional environments that have always been there while remaining hidden, concealed. It is from these impossible non-places, which do not even exist in our imagination, that the prolific exegesis of a long process of creation spreads". - Blanca Sotos of marcablanca.press
Series of sound sculptures derived from glass from the street’s trash, organic material from Madrid's parks, landscape paintings and sounds from architectural interiors. They contemplate the importance of breaking with the romantic image of nature. These are sculptures that use both industrial and organic materials (and sounds) to explore the uncomfortable interaction between them, looking for ways of coexistence, understanding their different temporalities and paradoxical synchronic encounters; the hardness and fragility of clay, concrete or glass, and the warmth and crispness of a branch, a piece of moss, etc. The assembly of these materials questions and considers a new post-natural landscape in relation to the imagination and the (post)human spirit in the Capitalocene. I have questioned architectural utopias such as Ebenezer Howard's "The Garden Cities of To-Morrow" or the transcendental philosophy of glass of the expressionist architects who formed the collective "Crystal Chain" and thus reflect on what these utopian thoughts can contribute or contradict/pervert in contemporary urban plans. in relation to environmental exploitation. For example, the utopia contemplated by the German expressionist architects of the early 20th century was quickly perverted by the industrial and capitalist movement of their time. They thought of a transparent glass architecture that inspired the spirit to renounce materiality and thus ascend to a higher level of collective consciousness towards nature and the cosmology of the Universe . Glass, however, is an element that has played a prominent role in the construction of leisure, housing and business in developing cities. These brilliant skyscrapers ultimately symbolize the capitalist promise that leads to the depopulation of rural areas and the exploitation of the environment, a reality contrary to that imagined by the transcendental philosophy of these expressionists.
Series of sound sculptures derived from glass from the street’s trash, organic material from Madrid's parks, landscape paintings and sounds from architectural interiors. They contemplate the importance of breaking with the romantic image of nature. These are sculptures that use both industrial and organic materials (and sounds) to explore the uncomfortable interaction between them, looking for ways of coexistence, understanding their different temporalities and paradoxical synchronic encounters; the hardness and fragility of clay, concrete or glass, and the warmth and crispness of a branch, a piece of moss, etc. The assembly of these materials questions and considers a new post-natural landscape in relation to the imagination and the (post)human spirit in the Capitalocene. I have questioned architectural utopias such as Ebenezer Howard's "The Garden Cities of To-Morrow" or the transcendental philosophy of glass of the expressionist architects who formed the collective "Crystal Chain" and thus reflect on what these utopian thoughts can contribute or contradict/pervert in contemporary urban plans. in relation to environmental exploitation. For example, the utopia contemplated by the German expressionist architects of the early 20th century was quickly perverted by the industrial and capitalist movement of their time. They thought of a transparent glass architecture that inspired the spirit to renounce materiality and thus ascend to a higher level of collective consciousness towards nature and the cosmology of the Universe . Glass, however, is an element that has played a prominent role in the construction of leisure, housing and business in developing cities. These brilliant skyscrapers ultimately symbolize the capitalist promise that leads to the depopulation of rural areas and the exploitation of the environment, a reality contrary to that imagined by the transcendental philosophy of these expressionists.