Núria Güell Serra


She was born in Vidreres, a town near the city of Girona, in 1981. And there she remains, it's her base camp. Not living in a big capital is a decision, a political one, like all decisions. She graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and continued her studies at the Art of Behavior Chair in Havana, Cuba. Since then, she has held exhibitions in art centers around the world and participated in numerous biennials. She has also received some awards and regularly collaborates with social and educational centers.

Aware that art is often used as symbolic and emotional support for all kinds of power, she tries not to provide answers or truths, not to draw conclusions or theses, but to show the conflicts and contradictions that arise between different realities. Her practice is not the expression of contemplation or the virtuoso display of a technique, but a practice of confrontation, questioning of evidence and moral conventions. This usually involves moving pieces, taking action—whether legal or illegal—moving individuals—accomplices or not—dealing with bureaucratic procedures; also, making the public institutions that contract her services move in a direction that was not previously articulated, getting them involved and not merely being passive observers. In other words, primarily working outside the studio and outside the exhibition space. Her works consist of gestures and movements that escape representation, and what she ends up showing in the exhibition space are some traces or indications of these movements, not representations, not autonomous objects; autonomy is found in the gesture.

Her projects always originate from some social or political conflict that she feels called to address, and their objective is to try to bring forth something that is not readily visible; in other words, and simplifying, to make something real perceptible. And for that to be possible, necessarily, her practice and convictions must also be called into question. Her stance towards artistic practice and her convictions come into play in each project, because they too are elements that end up getting involved in the confrontation, on the same level as the institutions. In other words, at the end of a project, she rarely emerges unscathed.

On the other hand, Núria cannot deny a strong subversive inclination in her work, and that's because she does not see artistic practice as a cultural practice, but quite the opposite: for her, it is a socially and politically necessary practice in which the cultural and established norms are put at stake.

www.nuriaguell.com

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