ELAION VIII (2021)
Vaseline and Chinese ink, print
175 x 120 cm
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 2021.501
The Elaion series, started in 2020, emerges from the interaction between printed paper and the human body. Using oily elements like vaseline, which leave visible marks on the prints, Ibon Landa explores the tension between materials and support, playing with the incompatibility between Chinese ink and greasy substances.
The phrase “grasso sobre magro” has traditionally been used in painting to highlight the compatibility between oil and acrylic: when applied in the indicated order, the paint behaves correctly; if inverted (magro sobre grasso), acrylics applied over oil do not behave as expected. It is within this incompatibility that the Elaion series finds its place.
The Resto-Rastro project seeks to handle images using sparing gestures pursuing a vibrant moment and perhaps a possible end of the work. A vibrant moment related to a sense of strangeness that fails between enigma and evidence. From 2022 onwards, the series evolved to a human scale with NOTAZIOAK, shown at the InSitu Festival. This investigation continued in 2024 with the posters for the Dantzan Bilaka workshops, where the exploration of materiality and the presence of the body remains central.
Ibon’s art is based on working on the weight of the image in space by means of materiality. He seeks to respond from a material approach to the image by means of manual processes with different materials where there are many images printed on paper. By assuming the residual as the starting point, the work focuses on branding or signing the image, almost as scarifying, using the furrow on the material. Handling the printed paper as a verification that the image has been laid out to reveal its materiality. Thus, placing it between the footprint as a gesture and the image as the desired form.