Bruno Botella

Bruno Botella (born in 1976) has been pursuing experimental work for several years, characterized by a creative process that is free from the suggestions of consciousness. In order to free himself from the latter, the artist creates sculptures in boxes that make his work invisible, while at the same time using unusual materials such as anaesthetic clay or qotrob, a hallucinogenic modelling paste that, by penetrating through the pores of the skin, plunges the sculptor into a second state. The result is astonishing objects where the artist’s consciousness withdraws while his body engages and risks itself.

In parallel to these plastic and sensory experiments, Botella cultivates an original drawing practice. Made in Kyoto where he now resides, these drawings are the continuation of a long research begun with the first animated drawings that the artist made after graduating from the Beaux-Arts in Paris. Even if his work bears witness to numerous references, Botella strives to make his gesture as free as possible, letting his calligraphy brush run over the sheet to bring out, in his own words, an “unexpected and strange image like a hallucination”.