Éxtasis, estatus, estatua (Ecstasy, Status, Statue)

Together with María Luisa Fernández, Juan Luis Moraza founded the artistic collective called the Comité de Vigilancia Activa, CVA (Active Surveillance Committee) between 1980 and 1985, linked to the artist group known as Nueva Escultura Vasca (New Basque Sculpture). José Luis Brea defined his work as a rigorous archaeological programme of the processes involved in the production of meaning, through the deconstructive analysis of images representing women, war and conflict.
Éxtasis, Status, Estatua uses an ordinary object to develop a complex metaphor, based on the heel as a symbol of the banal construction of femininity, as well as an expression of sexual power, together with the object’s phallic allusion. The artist himself has explained that: ‘The generic title refers to the etymology of the word statue, in which three concepts converge: ecstasy (a static position of maximum pleasure), status (a preeminent, fixed place) and stature (an elevated position with connotations of dominance and di!erence). Symbol, pleasure and power were intertwined
in the inaccessible position of representing joy’. 
The installation alludes to the importance of pedestals in public sculpture as symbols of power. As Moraza explains, ‘It was a tribute to Bernini, which took the heel as its object, considering it a small monumental device, like a magical base that elevates the body. In that series, thousands of heels of di!erent models — from small flat children’s heels to very high, thin stiletto heels — were arranged in an orthogonal series, reconstructing a topography that evoked curves of sexual arousal.’ In short, the installation speaks of the very nature of sculpture: its pedestals’ promiscuity
proliferates like the ever-postponed expectation of fetishistic enjoyment.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio