Juan Perez Agirregoikoa. War, Commerce and Philanthropy

Curated by: Chus Martínez

“Imagining the analysis of the social and political systems of our day through the figures of clowns, harlequins and hands does not seem at all strange in these times. It is true that the division between individual and persona has never been so relevant.

Perhaps, as Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa’s entire practice indicates, the very exercise of politics in the order Western countries inherited after the Second World War entails adopting a persona. It seems complex to do politics from and for the street, doing politics and keeping the profile of a simple, normal citizen.

The taste for the freaky, the weird, the extreme is directly related to the sensation that things are not working, that we have no power or influence to change the course of things. What things? The things of social justice and the intellectual life of the globe, those things that interest Juan Pérez.

His work possesses the power of eloquence and is capable of convincing us that painting is a suitable means to talk about the health of our public space, our ability to allow ourselves to be seduced by the power of presences that simply occupy everything, in the media, in our conversations, in our jokes, in our mockery.

While some occupy all this space, others lose all those opportunities to construct better thinking, a better way to live, a fairer and more finely-tuned political practice that is better able to address the crux of matters without just staying on the surface of that world of unhappy, unfair laughter.

Come! It will be worth it.”

JUAN PÉREZ AGIRREGOIKOA

Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa (San Sebastián, 1963) lives and works in Paris and San Sebastián.

Throughout his career, Agirregoikoa has participated in many solo and group exhibitions in museums, centres and galleries in both Spain and abroad. His most recent exhibitions include Forests of Memory at the San Telmo Museum (2025), Lacan, The Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2024), El verdadero poeta usa crema [The Real Poet Uses Cream] at the Galería Carreras Múgica, Bilbao (2024) and Western Perfection at the Galería Clages, Cologne (2024).

In 2023, he participated in group exhibitions like Machinations at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and I See No Difference Between… at Mendes Wood DM in Paris, and he presented the solo show Snakeskin Jacket at the Rosenblunt & Friedman gallery in Madrid.

In previous years, he has shown his works at venues like Tabakalera in Donostia (Concierto para puño alzado [Concert for a Raised Fist] as part of the Scala project) and Garage Rotterdam, KAI10—Arthena Foundation (Düsseldorf), and he has participated in group exhibitions like Communicating Vessels (Museo Reina Sofía, 2021) and the 31st São Paulo Biennial (How to (...) Things that Don’t Exist, 2014).

His most celebrated exhibitions include Do You Want a Master? You Will Have It! at the Museo Reina Sofía (2012), Treinta y ocho de julio - Treinta y siete de octubre [38 July–37 October] at Artium and La Panera (2018) and Chacun à son goût at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007).

He has also participated in the Lyon Biennial (2007), the Jakarta Biennial (2015), the Ljubljana Biennial (2025) and the international show Populism (2005), which travelled to the Nordic Institute of Contemporary Art, the CAC Vilnius, the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam and the Frankfurter Kunstverein.

He has received many grants and awards, including the “la Caixa” Grant (2024), the BBVA Multiverse Grant (2019), the Gure Artea Award (2006), the MUSAC Grant (2004), the Bancaixa de Valencia Award (1997) and the Banesto Foundation Grant (1993).

CHUS MARTÍNEZ

Chus Martínez (A Coruña, 1972) is a Spanish curator with one of the strongest international reputations who deploys a critical vision of contemporary creation as an element of transformation.

She is currently the director of the Institute of Art Gender Nature at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel (Switzerland) and associate curator of the TBA21 Foundation | Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.  She was previously the chief curator at New York’s Museo del Barrio, department head and member of the Core Agent Group at dOCUMENTA (13), chief curator at Barcelona’s MACBA (2008–2011), director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2005–2008) and artistic director of the Sala Rekalde in Bilbao (2002–2005).

She participated in the 2005 Venice Biennale and has served as the curatorial consultant of Carnegie International and the 29th São Paulo Biennial. She also curated many exhibitions during her time at the Frankfurter Kunstverein and MACBA, as well as other institutions like the Museo de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.
Chus Martínez delivers lectures, regularly writes critical essays for catalogues and is a frequent contributor to Mousse Magazine, among other international art magazines.

Her curatorial approach, which features a commitment to experimentation and radical thinking, enriches this show by offering new interpretative keys to Agirregoikoa’s work and its relevance in today’s world.