Nosotros, 2008
Painted steel, 500 x 360 x 340 cm
In Nosotros, Jaume Plensa is using letters from 8 different alphabets, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese. They are multiplied into a continuous random network over the total surface area of the body; these letters again represent, in their own way, the exploration of the “human container”. In contrast to Plensa’s usual works in which words add a metaphysical angle to the material elements, the characters that form Nosotros do not have a direct significance. Only the soldered links give them form. But this virtual sense hidden in the outline of the sculpture is also a denouncement of the murmur of useless words that invade our time, our different cultures, origins and languages. The soldered points knot together the apparent disorder of the letters, returning to the Origin, to the moment in which language, still not formulated, may talk both of the totality of the world and its negation. Nosotros pulses to the rhythm of the days, the lights, and the seasons. It is weightless under the sun, and welcoming as observers try to discover words hidden in the tangle of letters, trying to penetrate the heart of the mystery.
Born in Barcelona in 1955. Resides between Barcelona and Paris. During 2009-2010, professor at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums in Europe, the United States and Japan: Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (Spain); Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Halifax (United Kingdom); Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; Palacio de Velázquez – Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; BALTIC The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. Upcoming personal exhibitions: The Picasso Museum in Antibes, in 2010 and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoon Kaupunk, Finland in 2011.