About

About

Vinicio Bastidas currently lives and works in Berlin.

Researcher and visual artist with a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, with his doctoral thesis “The unread book. Process of interpretation and rereading of Hermann Hesse's Bildungsroman Steppenwolf from a woodcut book. His research on the artist's book earned the “Excellence” mention with a score of 9.5. He also has a Master's Degree in Artistic Production in the specialty of Contemporary Thought and Visual Culture from the same institution. He has a degree in Plastic Arts, specializing in Painting and Engraving from the Central University of Ecuador. He is a member of the association of German engravers “Bildende Künstler*innen Berlin”, BBK and Co-founder of the Graphic Research and Experimentation Center “Unter Druck” in the city of Berlin.

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Statement

As a visual artist who works outside of Ecuador, the theme that I have been developing for several years is related to my experience as a migrant, for this reason, identity, otherness and the fragility of the human being are recurring themes in my work. However, the metaphorical perspective of the body, identity and violence represented in my work with solitary and isolated images, in the Artist's Book, find a rethinking of the context and shed the sense of loneliness and isolation. This is because the artist's book offers my work the possibility of developing a narrative that dialogues with all the parts of the book, that is, with the type of paper, the mobile typography used, the folding and types of stitching that the codex and the binding offer, within a harmonious coherence. So the book becomes a complete object.

The vulnerability and loneliness of the images are integrated and cohabit in the artist's book, with a contingent of coherence from the woodcut wound, which, to manifest itself, must, unlike drawing on paper, follow a double path. First, that of the cut or incision. And, secondly, that of inking and printing.

As an engraver, I trace, cut, iron, draw with carving and with the gesture of the hand, while reproducing the outline of the object I intend to represent. In this way, I transfer part of my universe to a new universe, the book.

The void produced by the white background of the paper can be accused of containing, paradoxically, nothingness. However, as an engraver, the wound is the absence of matter, but the presence of an image. Feeling the presence of the image means moving away from oblivion, moving forward, in an approximation by virtue of each stroke towards memory and amazement, an event that interprets from the void everything that we have lost. Making a book from graphics is, at the same time, making a self-portrait.

About

Researcher and visual artist with a PhD from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, with his doctoral thesis “The unread book. Process of interpretation and rereading of Hermann Hesse's Bildungsroman Steppenwolf from a woodcut book. His research on the artist's book earned the “Excellence” mention with a score of 9.5. He also has a Master's Degree in Artistic Production in the specialty of Contemporary Thought and Visual Culture from the same institution. He has a degree in Plastic Arts, specializing in Painting and Engraving from the Central University of Ecuador. He is a member of the association of German engravers “Bildende Künstler*innen Berlin”, BBK and Co-founder of the Graphic Research and Experimentation Center “Unter Druck” in the city of Berlin.

Along with his doctoral research, he has published his book Vom Codex zum Künstlerbuch. Eine kurze Geschichte des Buches und der Bindung, in the Munich publishing house Bookwise GmbH, München 2022. ISBN: 978-3-945317-97-6.

To promote and disseminate graphic thinking and the concept of the Artist's Book, it has promoted telematic conversations between students and teachers, of which we can mention: Pandemic and dissident thought from artistic practices, with the participation of students from the School of Plastic Arts of the Central University of Ecuador, 2021 and Graficantes del Grabado: Instantes del Léxico Profesional, in which students from the Catholic University of Quito, Central University and the University of Mexico participated.

He has also participated in different conferences, such as the II International Congress of Hybrid Strategies of the Moving Image, Polytechnic University of Valencia; I Norma and Dissidence Congress, Valencian Institute of Modern Art, IVAM, Valencia; II International Graphic Meeting Campeche, Mexico.

His work has been exhibited in Germany, Colombia, Spain, Ecuador and Mexico, and among the most recent we can mention: Artbookmesse, Berlin 2023; Free. A window of creation spaces. Invisible Ink Gallery, Barcelona 2022; Eidos Ensembles 15 years. Fine Arts Room, Technical University of Pereira, Colombia 2022; 41st and 40th Mini Print International of Cadaqués, Spain 2021-2020, respectively; L´Etangd´Art Gallery. Bages, France 2022.; Wingfiel Barns Gallery, Suffolk, Great Britain, 2021; Tharrats d´Art Gràfic Foundation. Pineda de Mar, Barcelona 2020.

Berlin -Germany
0151 - 50898174

viniciobastidashotmail.com