Glitchland 2.0
Our way of perceiving reality is influenced by processes of alteration, optimization, replication and simulation of images and narratives. Digitalization, beyond being a phenomenon contained within the limits of screens, operates as a framework that shapes subjectivities, regulates consumption and crosses our bodies. In this scenario, the glitch is not only interpreted as a technical disruption or a failure in codification, but as a space of resistance that dismantles the supposed neutrality of the system.
Julio Sarramián explores the immaterial of technology through classical painting and reformulates the tradition of landscape to reveal the tensions of a digitalized world. Far from attributing human characteristics to the devices, he accurately reproduces textures and surfaces typical of the digital, almost completely eliminating the trace of his intervention. Nevertheless, the human potential is the origin and objective of his skillful trompe l'oeil, recalling that, in technological creation, underlies the organic and the natural.
The landscape has been a pictorial genre anchored for centuries in aesthetic conventions. Sarramián breaks with this tradition by introducing an ambiguous level of abstraction, representing an environment without temporal references or identifiable figures, where there are no living beings or details that allow us to fix a precise scale.
The distance between the public and the object represented is anomalous, a timeless mass whose densities could be either snow or lava. The uncertainty created before such a familiar subject as an alpine landscape is enhanced by the use of an aseptic language, which reinforces this strange bewilderment.
In the chromatic range used by Sarramián we find one of the most powerful aspects of his painting, since his metallic tones relate to the light in an almost autonomous way. The pictorial surface absorbs the reflections, making the mountaintops light up like the screen of an electronic device. The continuity of his gradients requires, in addition to a precise technique, long working sessions. Like fresco painting, Sarramián's works require a previous program to ensure the homogeneity of these chromatic transitions.
Only by knowing the artist's creative process can we understand the profound exercise behind each painting and his resistance to the dematerialization of art. His work unravels the digital through the material, giving codification a palpable physical presence. Far from any method of serial, mechanical or digital reproduction, Sarramián endows his paintings with a materiality that transcends the temporal fictions and interests imposed by cartography.
In Glitchland 2.0, the landscape is presented as a hybrid terrain in which the romantic tradition is fragmented to provide a contemporary testimony. The glitch effects that run along the sides of the paintings, reproducing the characteristic accidents of a digital screen, generate a unique balance in the composition and endow the exhibition with meaning. These elements are not limited to the canvas, but expand into the gallery, connecting the works together and transforming these relationships into a total installation.
In his practice, Sarramián questions the traditional dichotomies that have marked visual representation. Here, technology is a theoretical framework to question the representation of seemingly opposing concepts, such as natural and artificial, diluting the distance between them. In his works, rigorous precision coexists with the subtle organic warmth of his stroke, which evidences that there is nothing more human than technology.
Roberto Majano