Damián Ortega, Espace 315 - Centre Pompidou, Paris

Damián Ortega. Controller of the Universe, 2007. Found tools and wire. 285 x 405 x 455 cm (112.2 x 159.45 x 179.13 inches). Courtesy of the artist, White Cube, London

November 12, 2008 - February 2009

Born in Mexico City in 1967, Damián Ortega is the first Latin American artist  to show in Espace 315. With Abraham Cruzvillegas and Gabriel Kuri, he is one of the leading members of the rising artistic generation in Mexico, first coming to widespread attention at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, with Cosmic Thing, a Volkswagen Beetle dismantled and suspended from the ceiling, an ironic deconstruction of one of the cult objects of Mexican consumer culture.

Ortega began his career drawing political cartoons and his work is always marked by a certain acerbic playfulness. With irreverent eye, he parodies the purity of Minimalist sculpture. His sculptures, photographs and action pieces, which often make use of commonplace objects, suggest potential for development and perpetual change. A certain scepticism regarding the utopian forms of Modernist architecture and a distinct fondess for language games are also central to his work.

For Espace 315, Damián Ortega has created an installation that operates as a camera obscura. At the entrance is a collection of molecular models, while in the central space 6000 coloured modules are suspended from the ceiling. At the far end of the room, visitors pass behind a partition, from where they view the installation through a lens. Once again deploying the principle of fragmentation and spatial dispersion of forms, here Ortega allows viewers to experience the very process of perception that links eye to brain.