FRANCISCO RUIZ DE INFANTE
FLIGHT SIMULATOR
Gallery 1
17. March - 24. April 1998
curator: Ryszard W. Kluszczynski
co-operation: Urszula Sniegowska
Francisco Ruiz de Infante's work is of a clearly retrospective character. His very personal pieces remind us of childhood memories, collective memory and imagined travels. It is memory and journeying which are his usual themes and are styrongly present in almost every work.
Images, sounds and texts - all by Infante - conceive multi-layered, highly original, technically perfect and deeply moving pieces. The artist employs senitivity and skill not only as an artist but a musician and composer and a poet as well.
And although his work plays on the viewers' emotions, they are simultaneously sensually rich through the use of symbolic and metaphoric constructions. Their finish, drama, vehemence and gentleness are all reasons why Francisco Ruiz de Infante enjoys a reputation as one of the most interesting contemporary artists working with the moving image; an opinion which has been reinforced by the artist receiving a multitude of awards.
The exhibition entitled Flight Simulator, which takes up the whole space of Gallery 1 in Ujazdowski Castle, comprises four new works, which are being shown for the first time. Here Infante uses video images and sound set in an austere space. His favourite material is wood, which he uses to construct a particular spacial arrangement within the gallery and positions monitors and video projectors around the space.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in Polish and English presenting both the present show and documenting the previous artist's work.
Francisco Ruiz de Infante
was born in 1966 in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain (Basque country). Since 1991 he has lived and worked in Paris. He studied painting and the visual arts at the University of Bilbao (1986-91) and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris (1991-92), and music in the music school of Jesus Guridi in Vitoria (1984-89).
He has been exhibiting since 1988, (including); the Contemporary Art Museum in Madrid (1990), Saint Gervais in Geneva (1992), MNCA Reina Sofia (Madryd, 1992), Museum Carillo Gil (Mexico, 1993), Palais Beaux-arts (Paris 1993), Credac (Ivry-sur-Seine, 1994), Planetarium in Pampelunie (1995), Galerii D.V. (San Sebastian, 1995), Metronom (Barcelona, 1996) and Arco (Madryd, 1996).He has made several installations and more than twenty films and video tapes, presented at the ICA (London), Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museo da Image in Sao Paulo and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. His works are included in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Muse d'Art Contemporain in Montreal, Muse d'Art Contemporain in Zurich and many others.
