HOMO FABER
Presented by: ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture
Location: Carrer de Espronceda 326, Nave 4-5, 08027 Barcelona
Opening: February 6th, 2025, at 7:00 PM
Exhibition dates and opening hours: February 6th – 14th, 2025. Monday to Friday from 6 PM to 8 PM. Saturday 8th from 12 PM to 8 PM
About the Exhibition: Homo faber – Point of reference or point of no return?
Human life has long been taking place outside the sphere of influence of its owner. The social animal, man, nurtured by large corporations, has evolved from Homo sapiens to Homo addictus. The complex of financial incentives and ethical norms — developed in the bowels of corporations — maintains a perfect balance between self-love, envy and laziness, controlling the society’s safe activity more reliably than fear, trough which, for centuries, their predecessors — the state and the church — ruled. But the man of dependence is opposed by the man of creation.
The Creator of his own universe is the point of reference. He separates the light from the darkness, the firmament from the waters, through the blackness of a color devoid of inner power. The color of the deaf and frightening. The stars emerge, reflected in the blue surface of the endless ocean.
The darkness recedes, curled up in a tangle of black spots. Not as opposed to the light, but as an integral part of it, for without darkness, light does not exist.
From beneath the oral carpet, the pulsation of life rises, stirring, choosing its next incarnation. Black and red gures, descended from Greek vases — blurred, generalized clay Adams and African Eves, turned into pillars of salt in advance — guard the border between the worlds.
The man of creation invents a new plastic language. Letter by letter, he composes a new alphabet of dead and living languages. A crumpled shroud, a message, with an unknown cipher, a hidden revelation left in plain sight.
The man of creation makes a full circle to return to himself, but now to his learned self. He freezes and sees that everything is in harmony in the world he has arranged. In himself, he finds a haven of reassembly, impervious to the cacophony of the world around him. And once at the starting point, he begins a new countdown, destroying the world to the ground. There is no light without darkness and no creation without destruction. The starting point is always the point of no return.
About the Artist: Eugenio Shapoval (Ukraine, 1986) is an artist whose work reflects the fusion of two distinct cultural influences: the post-Soviet world in which he grew up and the modern, dynamic culture of Spain, where he has lived since the age of 15. His personal experience has allowed him to merge Eastern European cultural traditions with the modernity of life in the West, resulting in a unique artistic approach.
Shapoval’s artistic practice focuses on painting, where he combines colors and shapes to create emotional landscapes that invite introspection. His works evoke a sense of depth and reflection, encouraging the viewer to engage with the emotional essence of his subjects. The artist often explores the contrasting relationships between light and darkness, the real and the abstract, using these dualities to reflect on the complexity of human existence.
In his work, Shapoval highlights his belief in the beauty and necessity of subjective experiences. For him, each person has a unique “subjective bubble,” a space where different perspectives and opinions coexist. This idea is central to his art, inviting viewers to step out of their own perspectives and explore the multiple emotional and intellectual possibilities that shape our understanding of the world.
Artist Quote: “The important thing is that everyone has their own subjective bubble, and that is beautiful. We must accept and not fear every opinion and point of view.”
Contact:
ESPRONCEDA: info@espronceda.net
Artist: Eugenio Shapoval – www.zhk.es
Teléfono: +34 722 182 184
www.zhk.es
