Let’s talk with the artist Jordi Colomer

Jordi Colomer was born in Barcelona in 1962. He studied Art at Escola EINA, Art History at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Architecture at the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura, Barcelona. From 1991 to 2016, he lived between Barcelona and Paris. In the early nineties, he began experimenting with sculpture, a medium that was then moving in the direction of scenography and architecture. His early works adopt the formal language of Minimalism through the use of ‘poor’ and fragile everyday objects. This and a questioning of the place occupied by the viewer in the exhibiting space, were to prove the first signs of the ongoing traits of his artistic career. In 1996, Colomer began working with video, a format that allowed him to introduce narrative elements, fiction and the human figure. In 1997, he presented his first video-installation in a purpose-built screening room at MACBA: “Simo” (1997), a tragi-comic story about the paradoxical relationship we all have with objects. From 2001 onwards, in a series of works conceived as cinematic micro-narrations, Colomer sent his actors out into the street, making them interact with reality and contaminate it with fiction. The artist’s scenographic research entered the urban space in an exploration of the different scenarios of social life in places such as neighbourhoods, roads, wastelands and rooftops. Later on, in a series of works begun in 2011, Colomer investigates the multiple possibilities of utopia and dystopia, through both their enunciation and realisation. He is also the author of set designs for plays by Joan Brossa, Samuel Beckett and Valère Novarina, as well as an opera by Robert Ashley. Among his numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions are: Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018); Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona ( 2015); FRAC Basse-Normandie, Caen (2013); Matadero, Madrid (2012); Bozar, Brussels (2011): Jeu de Paume, Paris (2008); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2005); Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne (2004); ECCO Espaço cultural contemporâneo, Brasilia (2003); Shedhalle Rote Fabrik, Zurich (1992); and Espai 10, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (1986). In 2017, Colomer represented Spain at the 57th Venice Biennale. In 2024, MACBA hosted a solo exhibition of his recent work. His work is included in the collections of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Fundació “la Caixa”, Barcelona; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; MUMOK, Vienna; FRAC Rhône-Alpes, Lyon; and MACBA, Barcelona, among many others.