Txomin Badiola

He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Bilbao, where he coincided with some of the main protagonists of the renewal of Basque sculpture: Ángel Bados and Juan Luis Moraza. Between 1983-89 he taught at this same center. Closely linked to the figure of Oteiza, for whom he has curated several exhibitions, he has been more a practitioner of his vital attitudes than a conventional disciple (even though his sculptures from the mid-eighties were clearly indebted to the brilliant sculptor from Orio). His successive residences in London, Japan, and New York resulted in substantial changes in his work, expanding the spatial rupture of the sculptural object toward conceptual postmodern deconstruction. However, Badiola has not ceased to develop a project clearly linked to Basque sociopolitical reality.

Badiola has linked himself, from his particular interpretation, to constructivism and suprematism, as well as to certain aspects of American minimalism and more recently to the critical positioning of certain creators related to action art such as Paul McCarthy. A conscientious and systematic researcher, in the early nineties, after settling in New York, Badiola returned to his own models to change their scale, incorporate new materials, as well as their configuration. From the mid-nineties onward, Badiola accentuated the narrative contents of his work, while there was a multiplication of the elements comprising his sculpture-installations. Multimedia techniques, sound, and especially photography, made the readings by the viewer more complex and dynamic.

Badiola's most recent works emphasize two outstanding aspects of his personality: his social and political consciousness, in correspondence with an ethical commitment sustained since his public appearances, and his distanced and disenchanted stance. His titles underscore a certainly ambiguous poetic background.

The piece Dearest (the most beloved), belonging to the Collection, was exhibited at the Natalie Obadia gallery (Paris, 2002). Beyond its closed appearance, it summarizes much of the early influences with the recent incorporation of elements such as sound, photography, and the globality close to installation. It is, without a doubt, a work that is highly representative of the poetic language that this significant artist is developing in recent years.

Text provided by the Mediterranean Foundation. Author: J. B. Peiró.