Francesc Ruiz (Barcelona, 1971) narrates through comics, stories that occur in the same place where the story he narrates happens. Ruiz lives and works between Barcelona and Berlin. His work focuses primarily on drawings, which he moves to the field of comics and cartoon to narrate stories and perform actions with multiple groups of people in different scenarios at street level. In this way a complex and evocative visual universe unfolds which opens multiple critical readings of a connected narrative with specific urban areas.
A fan of comics, Ruiz uses it as a means of expression and takes it out of its traditional exhibition context in order to exhibit it in an artistic context, looking more for its metaphorical power that its narrative capacity, which he also doesn’t abandon. Ruiz's work has been exhibited in major solo (Miró Foundation) and collective (MUSAC, Málaga CAAC) exhibitions and is represented in major collections.
For the exhibition at the Abbey de Silos, Ruiz produces a comic book format publication entitled The Guided Visit, where he transfers a guided tour of the Silos exhibition hall itself. From the visual reading of the piece emerges a peculiar review of the distinctive nature of the Abbey. Ruiz exhibits his publication for the exhibition along with a collection of Bibles that come from various parts of the world produced in the language of comics and cartoon. These Bibles are translated into comic by different cultures, such as Japanese manga, Korean manhwa or the U.S. publisher Marvel. They are different adaptations of the Book of books, the Holy Word, the basis of Judeo-Christian culture.
In an unorthodox manner, Ruiz narrates in his work, the story of a group of tourists who are on a guided tour of the very exhibition room at the Abbey de Silos where these Bibles are exhibited. In this comic Ruiz summarises what happens in that particular space, that is, the visitors’ experience upon meeting the important Romanesque reliefs depicting scenes from the Holy Scriptures. In this way the artist combines in the same work the visitors’ experience, what the exhibition shows and what the spectator sees, into an experience that goes beyond hypertextuality and transports the spectator towards the translation of the Holy Scriptures into a different artistic language, the world of comics.
Related Exhibitions
Collection artworks included in the exhibition
Museo Reina Sofía Publications
