Before, fatigue
Antes, la fatiga consists of a sculptural installation in peat, a complete series of 24 unpublished photographs in B/W and an artist's book, edited and published by Vilaseco.
Peat is an organic material formed from plant remains, dark and spongy; amorphous, but obstinate in occupying time and space.
For Antes, la fatiga, Rodríguez-Méndez fits ten flexible structures covered in peat into the main room of the gallery. The pieces take over the space, wedged between the floor and the ceiling of the gallery; they dirty and scratch, leave traces and residues: testimonies of the failed attempts, of the successes.
Between action and sculpture, his pieces emerge from a controlled disorder; he stresses this chaos, aware of a possible failure, because it is there, in this uncertainty, where he finds balance, where his practice is shaped.
Rodríguez-Méndez says that everything has already happened before, we are bodies exhausted by our insistences, our failures, but determined to return. Antes, la fatiga, is a compendium of insistences that have already been, that have broken the surface and let us intuit, at least, what is on the other side.
Rodríguez-Méndez (Pontevedra, 1968) has a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid. He works on projects that involve different languages that intervene on the incorporeity of the material and the word. Languages that analyze and respond to the elusive principles of sculpture and the essential and physical experience of man.
His work has been exhibited individually in centers such as S.M.A.K. in Ghent, the MARCO in Vigo, Abierto x Artworks, Matadero Madrid, Caixa Forum, Barcelona, the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, the Yaddo Foundation in New York, the Galería Formato Cómodo in Madrid and soon at the CA2M, Madrid, the Sirvent space in Vigo and in collective projects such as the CGAC Santiago de Compostela, Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, the Artos Foundation, Nicosia, Cyprus, the IVAM, the CaixaForum in Barcelona, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, at the Conde Duque in Madrid, at the S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit Arts Centre. Ghent, Belgium, at the LABoral, Gijón, at the Fundación Sa Nostra, Mallorca, at the MAC Gas Natural Fenosa, A Coruña, at the CCCC (Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània), Valencia, among others.
He has been recognized with the Botín Foundation Scholarship, the Iniciarte Scholarships, the Bilbao Art Foundation, the aid for the promotion of Spanish Art from the Ministry of Culture, Matadero Madrid Scholarships, Casa de Velázquez Scholarship in Madrid, Aid for Creation and Production Xunta de Galicia, Aid for creation in Visual Arts, Community of Madrid, scholarship from the Art and Law Foundation and awarded by "CONNEXIO, spaces for reflection", Lugo.
He is currently Professor of Sculpture at the University of Salamanca, USAL.