Perception of space in Gustavo Fuentes
By Rodolfo J. Lugo-Ferrer, PhD

The title of this exhibition, Perception of Space, consequently leads us to think about the three classical unities, or what we know as the Aristotelian unities: action, time, space; proposed by the third-century Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work Poetics. Although these are intended as literary rules, especially for the theater, they could be applied to other artistic manifestations, in this case to the exhibition at hand, especially the unity of place or space; since it could be considered an aesthetic criterion. Although we could risk adding other unities to the analysis of the works presented in this exhibition, such as action and time.

In order to go beyond the unities outlined by the Greek philosopher, we could broaden our analysis of the totality of the works in this exhibition and add the unity of style, as proposed by Nicolas Boileau in his Art Poétique (1674). A homogeneous language and structures can be appreciated in the construction and pictorial formality of the style of each of the pieces. Fuentes comments that in the works in this exhibition, he aims to "translate all the information into emotions so that they impact the viewer's subconscious by constructing an amalgam of elements that are repeated across and through the pictorial planes, and the constituent elements created by the voids to create an optical effect that is tangible and can reformulate a pictorial representation. It is like being reborn in a historical moment in which we have found ourselves involved with the obligation to restart or rethink, as I have previously stated, what preexisted." What the artist wants to express is nothing new, but he can reformulate what was previously proposed by the artists of the 20th century belonging to the Op, Kinetic Art or Kineticism movement: Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, Jesús Rafael Soto, Francisco Sobrino, Yaacov Agam, Jean Tinguely, Robert Jacobsen, Frank Stella, Alexander Lieberman, Víctor Vasarely et al.

The works in this exhibition are constructions made with non-traditional materials: polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC, coated with polyurethane automotive paint; he also uses concrete, screws, and LED lighting. As Fuentes says, "I want to provoke an exteroceptive experience in the viewer, thus creating an awareness of our surroundings, which is why I use bright primary and secondary colors." Exteroceptive experiences are all those sensations that involve the senses—sight, smell, touch—triggered by external stimuli. Exteroception is definitely accompanied by proprioceptive stimuli that provoke bodily stimulation in space, hence the reference to the unity of space or place established more than two thousand three hundred years ago by Aristotle. These pieces by Fuentes move us to experience both sensations.

The works in this exhibition encourage kinetic movement, an extrasensory experience through the playful combination or contrast of shapes and colors, and the LED lights create the playful sensation of moving in a quantum space. Using minimalist and simple elements, each piece achieves mind-blowing effects. The dissected figures, polychrome with primary colors, provoke a vibratory movement. These vibratory color combinations pose mathematical and physical games, thus creating a hallucinatory effect that immerses the viewer in those sensory experiences the artist speaks of as exteroceptive, and which I add to proprioceptive; as Vasarely so aptly posited in his idea of a "plastic unity."

Fuentes draws from his kinetic and geometric ancestors, especially the entire group of Latin Americans living in Paris who managed to bring together an excellent conclave of artists in what was called the "Visual Arts Research Group" made up of the Argentines Julio Le Parc and Rogelio Polesello, the Brazilian Vieira Da Silva, and the Venezuelans Carlos Cruz Diez and Jesús Soto, et al. After the Greeks of the 5th century, everything is a rethinking of old ideas with contemporary concepts of the artist that realize their particular historical space, which is what can be appreciated in these daring pictorial approaches in the works of this exhibition.

These works, in addition to having a playful character, are very dynamic structures with a variety of characteristics where the integration of lighting elements can be appreciated, as a resource to create a perception of movement. They project
reflections, bordering on a sensorial spectacle, or a perceptible reality where various movements are perceived: the one created by the play of light and shadow from the LED lights and the structure of the piece, as well as the movement executed by the viewer when standing in front of the work and positioning themselves at different angles of the space in play with the light and reflections. From here we return to Aristotle's three unities and the unity of style added by Boileau. Fuentes forces us to experience a transformable, three-dimensional reality in pieces that are not.