DAVID PAREDES what goes on? in your my mind

18 may - 26 june 2010 Espace Vallès Galerie municipale d'art contemporain Grenoble, France.                                                                                                                                                                                                         Moving Memories                                                                                                                                                        by Danielle Maurel.                                                                                                                                                     Whether by way of performance or sculpture, fixed or animated images, David Paredes manages to make full use of a universe saturated with old wrappings, boxes and other industrial waste with unlimited visual potential. Without an ounce of bravado, he recycles this scrap with tenderness, giving it the time for a photograph or a short video, in a way offering it a poetic rebirth. A fine dusting of childlike spirit covers his zany creations, which include the artist himself transformed into a miniature “Astroboy”, complete with instructions and trendy packaging. Elsewhere, we are presented with a body, both characterised and lightened by a curious shell of plastic bottles, and a face, completely covered by cardboard. The self-portrait David Paredes therefore conveys seems to be part of a child’s game: he presents himself in various forms, amazing the world, laughing, stumbling at times.                It has been said that art is nothing more than a way of being. We remain dreamers before David Paredes’ way of being – his way of making a delicate epiphany of this game, a feat which is difficult to pinpoint or name. His movement, upon closer observation, appears to be more reserved than an initial first glimpse would lead us to believe. Far from showing off great materials and detailed techniques, he lets us instead lose ourselves in illusion, in the blink of an eye.                                                                                                                                                 The elegance of his creations and their meticulous finish transports us to a divided universe, where fragility brings reassurance and dreams bring solidity. Taking a deeper look, we see that the artist swings between the ridiculous and the fantastical to masks and truth. We see that his work goes far beyond a simple visual validation of waste and rubbish: he looks to the in-between, to a stimulating and a worrying strangeness.                                            Childhood is the distant country where we all came from. Its fragments and traces rise to the surface, both transformed and preserved. It is a universe where strength and fragility are merged. And it is in this vein that David Paredes builds immense paper boats before imposing buildings of power, with persistent humour.               Condemned to collapse in the wind, under the haughty noses of powerful men, and yet these fragile constructions are somehow filled with the inalienable force of a dream: departing, journeying, discovering new places.                David Paredes is an artist of memories and of displacements.                                                                           Fragile memories and uncertain displacements.                                                                                                    Playful memories and fearless displacements.                                                                                                         Determined not to allow anything to be lost and to not lose himself, his elastic movements slide into the realms of all possibilities, without the exclusion of any form or invention: wax sculptures, giant drawings, a customised crash helmet, performance, video…. His playful approach is always balanced with a fine, nonsensical discretion. It is never far, either, from criticism or stubborn opinions. Parody invades his installation entitled Arturitos Unidos Jamas Seran Vencidos. It is both a vain and vague armada, poetically powerful, and drawing on the ideals and beauty of ordinariness.