David Martínez Suárez wins the sixth edition of the LABjoven Award with his project 'Inercia'
Jointly organised by LABoral and the Asturian Youth Institut, it is aimed at helping young Asturian creators with the realisation of experimental artistic projects
David Martínez Suárez. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
The artist David Martínez Suárez (La Hueria, El Entrego, 1984), with his project Inercia [Inertia], has been selected as the winner of the sixth edition of the LABjoven_Experimenta Award, jointly called by LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón and the Instituto Asturiano de la Juventud [Asturian Youth Institute], which is attached to the Regional Ministry of the Presidency.
According to the artist, Inercia alludes to the actual physics definition of inertia, which is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of rest or motion. The piece relates to the disturbances in various European countries in the wake of the Euro financial crisis, most notably in Greece and Spain. Inercia is an installation structured around three elements: the re-editing of the film Streets of Fire (1984), directed by Walter Hill; videogames, in particular first-person shooter ones; and a series of moulds based on the Jhon-117 character in the 'Halo' video game. The work will be shown next autumn at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial.
The jury which unanimously selected the winning proposal out of the 27 projects that were presented was formed by Andrés Albuerne Frutos, on behalf of the Asturian Youth Institute of the Regional Ministry of the Presidency, as president; Jaime Luis Martín, Director of Castrillón’s Municipal Board of Culture, head of the Centro Valey [Valey cultural centre], editor of web page Ajimez Arte and art critic; Benjamin Weil, Activities Director of LABoral; Rocío Gracia, Head of Exhibitions and Publications at LABoral; Lydia Santamarina, Director of Museo Barjola, Gijón; Fernando Gutiérrez, artist and winner of this award its second edition; and Margarita Llamas, in representation of the Asturian Youth Institute of the Ministry of the Presidency, who acted as secretary.
David Martínez Suárez lives and works in Bilbao. A graduate in Fine Arts from the Universidad del País Vasco [University of the Basque Country] where he also completed a Master’s, he was awarded a grant by the Bilbao Arte Foundation during 2008. In the same year he received a grant from Kunsthaus Bregenz for a two-month residency in Austria. Along with the artists Lorea Alfaro, Manu Uranga and Jon Otamendi he obtained a diffusion grant from the Basque Government for the MLDJ project, carried out from 2010-2011. He has featured in solo and group exhibitions in exhibition centres and museums, among which stand out Defensa at Valey Centro Cultural in Castrillón (Asturias), 2012; Respira hondo at the María Forcada Foundation in Tudela, Navarra, in 2011; and The Back Room in 2009 at the Galería Parra & Romero in Madrid.
In his own words, artistic practice is approached through working with the real object, by understanding it conceptually from sculpture. “My work,” he says, “is arranged from an interest in industrial contexts and its social relations, technology and the human body itself. They are fragments of communication, helping to organise ideas and lead in different directions to indicate where personal desire is gaining density. The incidents and circumstances that appear during the process interest me more than its possible meaning”.
The LABjoven_Experimenta Award reaches its sixth edition this year 2012 and is dedicated to experimental artistic projects (installations, multimedia installations, actions, interventions and any other creative process) specifically conceived for its installation at LABoral. Aimed at Asturian artists or collectives, born or resident in the Principality of Asturias, or up to the second generation of descendants of Asturian emigrants, aged 35 or under, it provides €10,250 for the production of the selected proposal.
In previous editions, the following artists and projects were awarded: Pablo de Soto with Situation Room (2007); Fernando Gutiérrez with Crisálidas [Chyrsalides] (2008); Alicia Jiménez with En barbecho [Left Fallow] (2009); Adrián Cuervo with Dédalo España (2010); and Cristina Busto with Generadores de sombras [Shadow Generators] (2011).
