Cold and gray, enclosed in wide geometrical spaces, with no windows to the outer world, light comes only through tall openings in the concrete roof slowly pouring down into Espaliú's works. It appears we have reached Plato's hole in the ground, the place where we shall see our own reflection through the gentle shadows created by Espaliú. One cannot avoid feeling the struggles of a whole generation that confronted old demons and paid the price for it: Espaliú's youth and talent for instance.
“An intimate circle: the world of Pepe Espaliú”, is the name of this touring exhibition that focuses on Espaliú's most committed and productive work, although it also touches his artistic influences.
By 1990 Pepe Espaliú already knew he had AIDS, a new illness that especially targets hookers, fagots and junkies. Excuse my language but such was the roughness people with HIV had to face then, social exclusion. Concerning this strange new social class Espaliú said: “the sick are trap in a paradox: keep living in this world without touching the world, keep walking the earth without stepping on this earth”.
From the beginning of 1990 until 1992, Espaliú entered an intense creative process, also, during that time, his fatal illness remained a secret to everybody else. Those years conformed Espaliú's most representative work, the heart and soul of this exhibition. His work, more on the sculptural side, takes us directly to the solitude and isolation of a ill man while ill.
In December of 1992, Espaliú publicly declared his homosexuality and also being HIV positive through a letter to the newspaper El País: “Portrait of an evicted artist”. This letter coincided with a street intervention taking place in Madrid, “Carrying”, that involved him being carried by numerous couples (and famous people like Pedro Almodóvar or actress Marisa Paredes) from the Reina Sofía Museum to Congress of Deputies.
“An intimate circle: the world of Pepe Espaliú”, can be seen in the C3 (the Contemporary Art Center of Córdoba) until the 3rd of September. The C3 is across the river, very close to Hotel Viento10. We strongly recommend you to go visit the exhibition.
Pepe Espaliú's home town holds a interpretation center that in addition to many of his works, preserves his private library.