CÍRCULOS DE FUEGO (RINGS OF FIRE) A TALE OF LIFE

Curated by Hortensia Montero

'Círculos de Fuego', personal exhibition by Rubén Torres Llorca presented by the Kendal Art Center (KAC), is an immersive installation that incites us to an existential journey not without risks and vicissitudes. Making masterly use of icons deeply rooted in our collective imagination and modelers of our individual and social consciousness, "Circles of Fire", establishes a direct dialogue with the receiver that travels through each of the (somewhat Dantean) circles Make up this sample. Art, related legends, daily references and poetry are intermingled in a biting and sensitive proposal at a time. "Circles of Fire" is a journey without return that forces us to review our own itinerary for that risky journey that is our way through life. Rubén Torres Llorca (Havana, 1957) is one of the founding figures of the so-called New Cuban Art Movement that revolutionized the landscape of the visual arts on the island during the 1980s. His work, which is profoundly conceptual, is characterized by a Critical anthropological view of contemporary society.

​CÍRCULOS DE FUEGO (RINGS OF FIRE) A TALE OF LIFE

by Janet Batet

“We are everything and we are nothing.”

Charles Bukowski

Life is like a circus. We are immerse –wanted or not- in an ever-changing representation that pushes us to play/change roles as soon as the new setting emerges and, most of the time, we are not ready for the newfangled backdrop. If we had the time to look back in retrospective to ourselves, we would discover –not without disappointment and fear- that we have been most of our lives like beasts in a circus: forced constantly to break through rings of fire, assisted by some ineffectual choreographic movements previously rehearsed and -mostly- hurried pirouettes improvised at the last minute. This hasty act in which our existence takes place presents with a core difference with respect to the model of circus: We are performing our act eyes folded; without never reaching to see openly the ringmaster of this frightening representation.  We are everything and nothing.

“CÍrculos de fuego” (Rings of Fire) is an immersive installation that urges us into an existential journey not without risks and vicissitudes.   With a masterful use of icons deeply rooted in our collective imaginary and modelers of our social and individual consciousness, Ruben Torres-Llorca creates a maze-like environment that forces the viewer into a quest throughout each of the many circles making this show.  Art, legends, literature, and references to daily life are intertwine in this fascinating visual thriller that pushes us into a travel without return that revises our own itinerary during that precarious journey that is our passage through life.

II

“We are walking as if on a minefield.

We are aware that the field is full of explosives,

but we can’t tell where there be an explosion and when.”

Sygmunt Bauman

Let’s faced, we are shaped by fears. Since our earliest childhood we are fed with legends, folktales, games that model our being by planting the seed of fear. We learn to follow authority, to conduct ourselves according to very specific expected social roles, and to behave accordingly. “Figure 1”, the overture piece of the show, resumes this fragile, frightening condition. Standing in front of us, Little Red Riding Hood –like image in the mirror- quietly looks at us.  Behind her (and us), the always dreaded forest (the dark, the unknown, the threat) and, of course, the wolf (the fear per se). This is the beginning of our journey.

Successive circles of fire -hypnotic mandalas- present us with countless role models in this lifetime expedition. This “gallery of portrait” of socially constructed entities contrasts with some hermetic clues that are offered to us like unintelligible enigmas. Occupying the center of the main gallery, three installations seem to resume some imponderable trues: Keys to unexpected doors. It is not a coincidence that the pedestals supporting these sort of riddles are edified with books. Actually, text is one of the main components of this exhibition, underlying the base of our socially constructed reality versus the subjective experience of everyday life.

“Figure 17” marks the half of our travel: essential impasse. Media, ideology and generational alterity resume the “given forces acting on a body”. This indulgent yet disturbing image embodies the filial relationship (the family) as the very first modeler of our individual and social identities. This picture is not to be mistaken: We are not kids anymore. We are now the parental figure passing on all our fears into our kids. The show must go on.

III

Passes the caged beast by so many ring of fire!

Ariel Rot

The second floor of the gallery resumes our adult life and that moment of consciousness (fatal enlightenment) that makes us aware about the real meaning of our existence. All the pieces of the thriller are falling into place. Torres Llorca is a very well-informed alter ego that demands from us total awareness of our senses. The multiple, layered references throughout the show  

–like in real life- will get accessible in very different degrees to each receptor depending on its own personal background and experience.  The end, is a fateful rituornelle. It is not a coincidence that the end of the show in a sort of spiral is exactly located over our very beginning: the snake eating its own tail.

There, “Figure 23”, the final and definitive clue: The lion. Another mirror. The hunting trophy of that ringmaster that we will never know. The jump into the void.

Janet Batet

Everglades, Winter, 2017

THE OPRDER OF THINGS

By Hortensia Montero

A consummate artist, whose successful and fruitful professional trajectory has been marked by both aesthetic enjoyment and national and international recognition, Torres Llorca offers us his conceptual sharpness, expressed with simplicity and elegance. Circles of Fire constitutes the synthesis of the conceptual foundations of his poetics. The repetition of the circular element—whether of newsprint, or black or white in color—establishes the narrative sequence of characters or animals depicted in delicately cut, light gray paper, affirming his adherence to craftsmanship and the theatricality of his imagination.

Two rectangular paintings, framed with a measuring strip—one representing centimeters and the other inches—exude originality, elevating their impact. One work engages with the theme of Little Red Riding Hood, while the other reads: Given Forces Acting on a Body. Both compositions provoke a sense of estrangement, juxtaposing the allure of the frame with the scenes they contain.

The aura of the charismatic sculptures, placed on small tables, contributes to the creation of a suggestive, enigmatic, and mysterious atmosphere. An underlying irony flows throughout, emblematic of his aesthetic discourse and his affinity for postmodernity, reflecting the erosion of values and the dehumanization of relationships. His work aims to dismantle the icon, relying on paintings, books, and objects—symbols that, as they create their own dramaturgy, challenge one another.

Torres Llorca reveals a singular cosmology, one that echoes the cryptic message of a discourse paraphrasing real life, centered on a conceptual universe that amplifies the semiotic potential of objective reality through the reiteration of elements, the achieved atmosphere, the energy emanating from the works, and the guiding, complicit presence of paintings, circles, sculptures, and books.

On a small circular frame covered with papier-mâché, he paints a lion. In black cut-out letters, it reads: “The caged beast passes through so many circles of fire,” a line extracted from a verse by José Martí. The text undermines the comfortable and pleasing image of the animal’s figure. This rupture shatters the aesthetic, artistic, literary, and conceptual interests of the image, provoking the loss of the intellectual magic of the message. Its ideological complexity rests on this axiom: to destroy the icon, one must break everything the painting represents as an object, which remains an ephemeral element within the ensemble.

The installation reveals a verdict grounded in “the order of things.” The beauty contained within the images reflects extreme situations. This work serves as a lesson in survival in today’s world. The actions of the figures within each image allude to a reality of confrontation, belligerence, and restrained force among human beings. Appearances are not reality. The symbolism in each piece is conclusive. There is no escape. Visitors will leave the exhibition space convinced that the circle of fire looms over us all… everywhere.

Hortensia Montero, M.A.

Master in Art History, University of Havana. General Contemporary Museology, Louvre Museum, Paris. Contemporary Art Curator, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. Associate Professor, University of Havana. Author of the book "The 70s: Bridge for Breaks". Active researcher and curator of Cuban art (1975–2016). National Curatorial Award, Havana, 2003 and 2006.