JORGE SATORRE. RÍA.

Curated by: Latitudes.

In February 2025, the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo will present “Ria”, the first monographic institutional exhibition devoted to Jorge Satorre in Spain. Satorre’s artistic practice addresses unmapped and “minor” histories, whether through attending to the intangible heritage of traditions and the oral transmission of stories, or by engaging in more formal explorations of traditional craft production methods, their environments, stories and workers.

Emerging from his initial interest in developing a career as an editorial illustrator, Satorre’s artistic research has evolved to encompass a fascination with the limits of various disciplines associated with drawing. Yet his current artistic identity increasingly revolves around a sculptural practice that dialogues with the diverse contexts where his work is conceived and displayed. Moreover, his recent projects frequently involve acts of transformation and subversion, stemming from elemental actions such as moulding, stamping, forging, casting or breaking—operations applied to materials that he regards as intrinsic components of a process of progressively moving away from a place where ideas originate. Just as hands and tools intertwine in Satorre’s work, so too do the intimate with the industrial, the functional with misuse, anecdotes with archetypes, and remembered events with the imaginary.

“Ria” will span Satorre’s production between 2013 and 2025, representing a phase he understands by his endeavor to calibrate the distance between the forms and references that inform his work. This period has also involved a certain introspection, leading him to question the scale of personal experience in relation to broader cultural, political or social contexts. In this sense, he employs a nuanced interplay of scales, oscillating between the specific and the general, proximity and distance, and inner life with what public exposure entails.

Jorge Satorre’s first monograph will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, featuring commissioned essays by Daniel Garza Usabiaga (Director, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City) and Sean Lynch (artist, Askeaton, Ireland), alongside a conversation between the artist and Latitudes, the exhibition curators. The bilingual Spanish and English edition will be structured around Satorre’s solo exhibitions of the last 15 years and organised in reverse chronological order, rather than focusing on individual works or themes. The book will be designed by the artist and editor Gabriel Pericàs in collaboration with Satorre, and co-published by Museo CA2M and Caniche Editorial.

JORGE SATORRE

Jorge Satorre (Mexico City, 1979) lives in Bilbao. His work has been exhibited individually at museum and galleries like Veste noire, sweat-shirt gris, CRAC Alsace, Altkirch, France (2021); Chamarra negra, sudadera gris, CarrerasMugica gallery, Bilbao (2020); Pancha, the Colorful Bird and the Shining Snake, REDCAT, Los Angeles (2018); Los animales muertos, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2017); Un tema moral moderno, decorar el agujero, LABOR gallery, Mexico City (2017); Emic Etic?, Artspace, Auckland / Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (2013); The indirect gaze, Le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire, France (2010); and Modelling Standard with Erick Beltrán, FormContent (2010), among others.

As a curator, he has organised the group exhibition Café con leche, piña, huevo con jitomate, cebolla y cilantro [White coffee, pineapple, eggs with tomato, onion and cilantro] (CarrerasMugica gallery, Bilbao, 2022–23); the Alberto Pel solo exhibition called Redonda, Redonda (Tecla Sala, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, 2021); and Modelling Standard (Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona, 2011) with Erick Beltrán.

LATITUDES

In 2005, Max Andrews (Bath, 1975) and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Montevideo, 1977) founded Latitudes, a curatorial office headquartered in Barcelona that works internationally in contemporary artistic practices.

Latitudes has curated the exhibitions Panorama 21. Apuntes para un incendio de los ojos [Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire] (with Hiuwai Chu, 2021) and José Antonio Hernández-Diez: No temeré mal alguno [I Will Fear No Evil] (2016) at MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Cosas que las cosas dicen [Things Things Say] (2020) and Joan Morey. COLAPSO [Joan Morey. COLLAPSE] at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; 4,543 miles de millones. La cuestión de la materia [4.543 Billion. The Matter of Matter] (2017) at the CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux; and Composiciones [Compositions] Barcelona Gallery Weekend for (2015 and 2016). Latitudes served as the Guest Faculty in the curatorial residency ‘Geologic Time’ at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada (2017), and was part of the jury and tutorial team of three seasons of ‘Barcelona Producció’, Centre d'Art La Capella (2016–2020).

Between 2016 and 2022, Latitudes published the online project ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ produced by KADIST, recounting twenty encounters in one day between and artist and a curator. Other publishing projects include the first monograph on the artist Lara Almarcegui: Projects 1995–2010 (Archive Books, 2011), the live publication of ten weekly tabloids throughout the duration of the exhibition The Last Newspaper (New Museum, New York, 2010), and LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook (Royal Society of Arts/Arts Council England, 2006).

Max Andrews is a writer who has contributed to the magazine Frieze since 2004 and worked with Artforum since 2024. Mariana Cánepa Luna was the secretary of the board of Hangar Centre de Producció i Recerca Artística, Barcelona (2015–2019). Since 2023, they have both been active members of the Gallery Climate Coalition and of the Founding Committee of GCC Spain.