To enter Rafael Barrios’ atelier is like penetrating a surreal world where everyday objects lose their shape, and some even their existence, and turn into something else made with the same materials but with a different destiny. It is as if Barrios’ hand transforms objects not only in their shape but also in their essence. The work of Rafael Barrios seems to contemplate the world and see it move like if it were a living being. When you look at the sculpture and then move, you will see the work move in the opposite direction since it is concave and convex. That’s what creates the sensation that “seeing is not believing”. This generates a mental game, an interrelationship that makes the observer into a different universe dominated by the unfathomable. Even a glimpse at one of his works will produce a certain uneasiness, “a slight vertigo” because when you try to decipher it you are mobilizing your neurons in a different way, searching for what the new shapes produce in your mind, inevitably moving your intellect or as Barrios’ describes it “neuro calistenics”. Long into our conversation I finally confirmed the suspicion that haunted me…
Edición: https://www.arteinformado.com/agenda/f/virtual-juggle-131505