The sculptural situations of Sergio Verastegui, a reflection on the question of remains
Of Peruvian origin, Sergio Verastegui now lives and works in Paris. After having studied at the School of Visual Arts in Rio de Janeiro and at the National School of Fine Arts Villa Arson in Nice, he started a thesis in 2011 at the University Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint-Denis, under the direction of Jean-Philippe Antoine, a professor and researcher at Paris VIII, as well as a philosopher, an art critic and a visual artist. His thesis is entitled Words and Forms: the link between the book and the exhibition space from Marcel Broodthaers to today. What relationship is there between Sergio Verastegui's artistic practice and his theoretical study? Does pursuing this thesis allow him to have more perspective on his creative work? We contacted the artist by email to go into this more in depth but he never answered. However, he seems to express himself easily on his work, as shows the text that he wrote for his personal blog.
When asked about his influences, he did not comment either. The presentation text of his exhibition at Jeune Création mentions three artists as references: Bruce Nauman, Mike Nelson and Manfred Pernice. We can most probably make a parallel between his installations, his way of placing elements in the space, his salvage and recycling of raw elements with Nelson and Pernice's practice.
The central theme to his work seems to be his use of "remains". Bits of cardboard boxes, fragments of wood, metal cans, etc. Sergio Verastegui salvages what he finds, in order to give it a second chance, a new life. These poor materials become the substance of "sculptural situations" and installations that he lays out in the exhibition space. The artist talks about the importance of remains and the use he makes of them in his pieces. He salvages "fragments" of objects and materials that interest him. Based on what criteria? It is a mystery... Maybe we could talk about an encounter between the artist and these bits of material. How does he preserve them? Sergio Verastegui talks about storage, he probably put a system in place to keep them before using them again. It is mainly raw materials, wood, cardboard, but also metal objects, plastic, wire, etc. He sometimes paints them or ties them together before arranging them with one another. It is poor materials, that give a precarious and fragile aspect to his artworks. For the Jeune Création exhibition, he used bits of parquet floor, placed on the ground or in piles, cardboard boxes in which he placed a mirror, string, a sculpted hand, amongst other things. He also assembled some planks, that resembled incomplete pieces of furniture. On one of them, he placed two squashed empty metal cans. He therefore mixes raw materials and objects with a more elaborate appearance (fake hands, cans, mirror) placed on the first ones like pedestals. Deprived from their primary function, showcased like relics, they attract attention, acquiring a specific interest.
Following a structured process, the artist creates works where each element is important and participates in the balance of the whole. He details this process in several steps. He first talks about "stabilising isolated micro-accidents" that are unintentional, that occur without his intervention. He then looks to favour the creation of new accidents, by arranging in the space the elements that make up his work. Through the explanation of these two steps, we understand the importance that Sergio Verastegui gives to chance during the elaboration of his sculptural situations, but also the mental construction that they need. All this chance and reflection balance themselves out, creating artworks that are thought through but also dependent on chance. When talking about the installation and the arrangement of the fragments they are made of, Sergio Verastegui indeed explains the importance of prior preparation, at once mental and material. The Jeune Création website published a photograph of the artist's notebook, showing a preparatory drawing for the layout of the artwork's parts in the space. The artist creates an economy of means, first because all the materials he uses are poor, and second because he installs them by sparing his actions, thanks in part to this preparation.
Sergio Verastegui grants particular importance to the space in which he exhibits, the latter determines the arrangement of the different parts of his installations, that one could qualify as site specific artworks. In his installations, the floor has an elementary place and resounds like a territory, the fragments often being placed on the ground. It gives the impression that his artwork is set in the ground and that Verastegui creates a sort of inter-ground and an inter-space. His installations are generally made up of a small amount of elements, Sergio Verastegui doesn't overload the space, his works are laid out in order to leave space for the spectator to walk through.
His exhibition at Jeune Création gave us the occasion to measure all of this. The pieces that were displayed were created by the artist between 2011 and 2013. He arranged them in the space by taking over and appropriating it with his reflection, in a harmonious and poetic layout. He used a large amount of elements of parquet floor, placing them parsimoniously and not covering the entire floor. It looked unstable, but the spectator was invited to walk around amongst these fragments. This airy layout enhanced each element and, even if some attracted more attention, none seemed squashed by another. This configuration gave the impression of entering the artist's world, as if one had access to his studio. The spectator is encouraged to walk freely between the different parts of his artworks, without being guided. It is up to him/her to find his way, to attempt to understand these sculptural situations, to listen to what they have to say. He/She is invited to take part, to interact with the different pieces. He can let his/her perception of the installations run free. With their labyrinth-like aspect, they remind us of the creations of British artist Mike Nelson, whilst also being much more ethereal.
Through the elaboration of his artworks, Sergio Verastegui looks to create a dialogue with the spectator, getting them to interact. He attempts to establish a guiding principle, that gives direction but also leaves one free to interact with what one sees, without a speech being essential. The artist expresses in this way the importance of the preparation of his work, well thought out despite the impression of bareness or simplicity that it may present, and despite the importance given to accidents.
Thread has a more concrete place in some of his works. Verastegui sometimes uses it to link elements to one another, or to define a regular outline, like in Espanto del futuro, the piece that he presented in the "Engrammes" exhibition in the Parisian gallery 22.48m² in 2012. The artist mentions his inspiration of archaeological procedures, namely that of grid representation. The influence of archaeological tools on his work shows all the importance he gives to remains, what they may become and the history they contain. Sergio Verastegui does not only create a dialogue between his artworks and the spectator, but he establishes above all a conversation between the elements that constitute them, that seem to exchange. What would happen if we changed one of the object's positions' Would it create another conversation, another dialogue? We can link his will to create a dialogue, to a discursive use of fragments, each element having a history and living a new one by interacting with what surrounds it. His artworks have conceptual qualities and seem to act as the metaphor of a disintegrated reality. Like an archaeologist, Sergio Verastegui gives particular importance to the trace that these objects keep of their past, of their inherent history. His pieces are therefore strongly linked to the idea of memory, as shown by the ones exhibited at the gallery 22,48m². They seem to put the souvenirs held within each object chosen by the artist in resonance with the spectator's memory, stimulated by their view.
As well as establishing an interaction between his artworks and the spectator, Sergio Verastegui sets up a discursive exchange between his different creations and the reuse of the fragments that constitute it. His installations only exist as such in the exhibition space, they are ephemeral. They make up a sort of precarious and transitory micro-universe. The artist however is interested in their persistence in other spaces and in other forms, for example in his studio and in his storage space. But what is the status of these other venues? Sergio Verastegui talked of how one day one of his artworks was broken, and he salvaged a part that he found interesting in its waste form and kept it in a box, before using it again for another artwork. He then started to salvage fragments of his sculptural situations to use them again. Thus, he qualifies his art as auto-cannibalistic, feeding on itself and becoming "a reconstitution stemming from destruction". His artworks survive in this manner, evolve, can also be pursued thanks to this recycling. The artist says he is formulating a posthumous vocabulary, partly linked to his reflection on death, on what happens to the "material" afterwards. What does one do with what remains? Sergio Verastegui ponders on this and asks the question through his art. He explains that he is attempting to respond to the "postmodernist stalemate". According to him, he places himself, simply by looking into this, in "today's world' by questioning the concept of crisis. What is a crisis and what does it consist in? The crisis of a space, an idea, or a body for example? The crisis of meaning? I like the forms of passage, temporary, open and indefinite." This question of remains, their future, their transformation and their recycling is effectively one of the great concerns of our era. That is why, according to the artist, this corresponds with a position that is at once "historical, political and artistic". For him, this questioning is a real position and a commitment. Through his artworks, he seems to invite us to think for ourselves as to what can become of these remains, encouraging us in some way to take part in this crusade.
Louise Faucheux