Viewing Room Main Site

DIEGO PÉREZ

HISTORIA DE ARENA

Two axes compose the exhibition: the impermanence of the monumental and the permanence of the ephemeral. Mesa infinita (2020) represents the first axis: the transformation of the castle suggests that the views of history represented by monuments are also subject to profound changes with the passing of time. Their importance is clear when we consider how Mexico has built and rebuilt its own past. Throughout centuries, the figure of the pre-Hispanic has set the pattern for the origin of what is Mexican; where, in the 19th century, the indigenous was seen as a classical past and a present to be overcome through modernization, in the 20th it was redefined as a tragic past in need of recovery before Spanish legacy, though yet subjected to a modernizing discourse.

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions:100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 1, 2020
Sand on basalt base
Base Dimensions:100 x 150 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire

Mesa infinita 

The Mesa infinita (2020) is not only a representation of the inevitability of ruin and a parable of the ephemeral against permanence, but also an open field for sculptural practice. It is necessary to remember that this exhibition is primarily about sculpture: the sand of the Mesa is a material of infinite possibilities, in the same way historical events can be interpreted and sculpted without end. Like small children in sandboxes, sculptural work is a discovery of the power of our hands and how it is that they connect us directly with the world. The Mesa will never remain the same; it is a constant sculptural essay, a simultaneously stable and unstable form, whose duration is also variable. But it is also a work table, it is a miniature sculpture garden, it is a blank drawing or a model, a school of forms. Its malleability and its possibilities of being different things for different points of view are representative of the common grounds shared by both artistic and historical practices

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita. Vista Panorámica 1, 2020
Archival pigment print
60h x 90w cm
23 28/45h x 35 13/30w in
Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita. Vista Panorámica 1, 2020
Archival pigment print
60h x 90w cm
23 28/45h x 35 13/30w in
Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita. Vista panorámica 2, 2020
Archival pigment print
60h x 90w cm
23 28/45h x 35 13/30w in
Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita. Vista panorámica 2, 2020
Archival pigment print
60h x 90w cm
23 28/45h x 35 13/30w in
Edition of 4

Inquire

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #1, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Edition of 4 

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #1, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Edition of 4 

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #2, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #2, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in
Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #3, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #3, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #4, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #4, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #5, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #5, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #6, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #6, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #7, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #7, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #8, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Diego Pérez
Apuntes para la mesa infinita #8, 2020
Archival pigment print
40h x 59w cm
15 95/127h x 23 8/35w in

Edition of 4

Inquire

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 75 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 75 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 75 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 75 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 75 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa Infinita 2, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 75 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire

Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Diego Pérez
Mesa infinita 3, 2020
Sand on travertine base
Base Dimensions: 67 x 57 cm
Variable dimensions
Unique

Inquire

The canon of national narratives, which is known among historians as the “history of bronze”, makes of monumental representations the leading current of the country’s history. In it, what is Mexican is conceived as a monolithic identity in which the indigenous constitues a distant, petrified past, ignoring the contemporaneity and diversity of the communities living in the country. The installation that makes up the second axis of the exhibition alludes to the history upon which Mexico’s everyday life is built, and that the history of bronze pretends to immobilize, excluding the continuities between past and present that turn all those great national events into a sand castle. Traditions and daily practices will continue evolving beyond our days, and the works shown, closer to the earth than all those monuments that pretend to reach the skies, awaken emotions and thoughts that seek not to praise the nation, but show its concrete existence.

Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Diego Pérez
Muro sin nombre, 2020
Carved construction bricks
Variable dimension
460 construction bricks
21 carved construction bricks
Unique

Inquire

Through reuse and recycling, Diego Pérez’s artistic practice resignifies everyday objects whose relationships with history are complex, reminding us that they change constantly. Pérez helps us remember that not everything is sacred, that what unites us are not so much the monumental silhouettes of the history of bronze but its discarded fragments of everyday life, the small and profound narratives we have in common and whose destiny is change.

Diego Pérez
Prócer anónimo, 2015
Carved concrete
43h x 24w x 20d cm
16 118/127h x 9 57/127w x 7 111/127d in
Unique

Diego Pérez
Prócer anónimo, 2015
Carved concrete
43h x 24w x 20d cm
16 118/127h x 9 57/127w x 7 111/127d in
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Prócer anónimo, 2015
Carved concrete
43h x 24w x 20d cm
16 118/127h x 9 57/127w x 7 111/127d in
Unique

Diego Pérez
Prócer anónimo, 2015
Carved concrete
43h x 24w x 20d cm
16 118/127h x 9 57/127w x 7 111/127d in
Unique

Inquire

Prócer anónimo (Anonymous Dignatary)

The Prócer anónimo (Anonymous Dignatary) and the untitled sculpted stones (2015) are ready- mades that Diego Pérez bought from an amateur artisan from Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico. Sculpted in concrete, which makes sculptural work extremely difficult, the Prócer suggests the firm continuity of the national imaginary at all levels of society. Similar to the numberless busts of 19th century president Benito Juárez, which can be found across the entire country and are made by professionals and amateurs alike, this generically patriotic figure enters the gallery space and the artworld as an index of the inherent exclusions of the art category, from the material to the technical. Setting up an interplay between the individuality of the artist and the anonymity of the artisan, the Prócer represents as well those unique transformations of history when appropriated by everyday life; the stones become archaeological registers of the present, pointing towards the ways in which culture is not the strict product of renowned heroes but of wide social interactions whose name is impossible to determine.

Diego Pérez
Piedras sin título, 2015
Carved stone
Variable dimensions
10 elements

 

Diego Pérez
Piedras sin título, 2015
Carved stone
Variable dimensions
10 elements

 

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Piedras sin título, 2015
Carved stone
Variable dimensions
10 elements
Unique

Diego Pérez
Piedras sin título, 2015
Carved stone
Variable dimensions
10 elements
Unique

Inquire

Diego Pérez

Piedra abnea IV, 2016

Basalt

6h x 20w x 41d cm

2 46/127h x 7 111/127w x 16 17/120d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Piedra abnea IV, 2016

Basalt

6h x 20w x 41d cm

2 46/127h x 7 111/127w x 16 17/120d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Piedra 2
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
9h x 26w x 37d cm
3 69/127h x 10 30/127w x 14 72/127d in
Unique

 

SOLD

Diego Pérez
Piedra 2
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
9h x 26w x 37d cm
3 69/127h x 10 30/127w x 14 72/127d in
Unique

 

SOLD

Diego Pérez

Piedra de Erwan para descender al fin de los tiempos, 2016

Basalt

6h x 33w x 32d cm

2 46/127h x 12 126/127w x 12 73/122d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Piedra de Erwan para descender al fin de los tiempos, 2016

Basalt

6h x 33w x 32d cm

2 46/127h x 12 126/127w x 12 73/122d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

Piedra abnea VI, 2016

Carved lava stone

6h x 30w x 49d cm

2 46/127h x 11 73/90w x 19 37/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Piedra abnea VI, 2016

Carved lava stone

6h x 30w x 49d cm

2 46/127h x 11 73/90w x 19 37/127d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Piedra 5
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
12h x 23w x 50d cm
4 92/127h x 9 6/109w x 19 37/54d in
Unique

 

SOLD

Diego Pérez
Piedra 5
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
12h x 23w x 50d cm
4 92/127h x 9 6/109w x 19 37/54d in
Unique

 

SOLD

Diego Pérez
Piedra 6
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
12h x 8w x 10.50d cm
4 92/127h x 3 19/127w x 4 17/127d in
Unique

Diego Pérez
Piedra 6
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
12h x 8w x 10.50d cm
4 92/127h x 3 19/127w x 4 17/127d in
Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

Piedra abnea V (larga roja redondeada), 2016

Basalt

10h x 20w x 41d cm

3 119/127h x 7 111/127w x 16 17/120d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Piedra abnea V (larga roja redondeada), 2016

Basalt

10h x 20w x 41d cm

3 119/127h x 7 111/127w x 16 17/120d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

Piedra de Erwan para descender al fin de los tiempos, 2016

Basalt

7h x 36.50w x 40d cm

2 96/127h x 14 37/100w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Piedra de Erwan para descender al fin de los tiempos, 2016

Basalt

7h x 36.50w x 40d cm

2 96/127h x 14 37/100w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez
Piedra 9
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
5h x 15w x 37d cm
1 123/127h x 5 115/127w x 14 72/127d in
Unique

Diego Pérez
Piedra 9
From series: Piedras para apnea, 2018-2020
Carved lava stone
5h x 15w x 37d cm
1 123/127h x 5 115/127w x 14 72/127d in
Unique

Inquire

All the major events of humanity are always accompanied by their counterpart, a kind of shadow that blurs them, and that isn’t necessarily the same story as that of the defeated. Every conquest, every monumental work, every human achievement has a counterpart, a loss, a tear, a sacrifice.

Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Inquire
Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Inquire
Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Inquire
Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Diego Pérez
La casa del cantero, 2020
Lava stone
32h x 36w x 36d cm
12 73/122h x 14 22/127w x 14 22/127d in
Unique

 

 

Inquire

El sabueso del Vasco (The Basque's Hound)

Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519) had a fundamental role in the subjugation of numerous American indigenous populations, especially in the region then known as Darién, an actual part of Colombia. One of the practices that characterized him was aperreamiento or “dog- siccing”: after torturing the peoples who resisted the Spanish Empire, he ordered his dogs to dismember them. Under the pretext of punishing sodomy, Núñez massacred persons by using his animals as weapons of war, afterwards claiming the gold of his victims. The level of violence and destruction undertaken by the conqueror was unprecedented, provoking revulsion among Americans and some Europeans. Nevertheless, his fervor for the expansion of Catholicism was celebrated in the Spanish courts, opening the way for the Empire towards the Pacific Ocean.

Diego Pérez

El Perro del Vasco, 2018

Carved lava stone

124h x 56w x 55d cm

48 104/127h x 22 5/106w x 21 83/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

El Perro del Vasco, 2018

Carved lava stone

124h x 56w x 55d cm

48 104/127h x 22 5/106w x 21 83/127d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

El Perro del Vasco, 2018

Carved lava stone

124h x 56w x 55d cm

48 104/127h x 22 5/106w x 21 83/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

El Perro del Vasco, 2018

Carved lava stone

124h x 56w x 55d cm

48 104/127h x 22 5/106w x 21 83/127d in

Unique

Inquire

Diego Pérez

El perro y la serpiente, 2020

Volcanic stone

40h x 40w x 40d cm

15 95/127h x 15 95/127w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

 

 

Diego Pérez

El perro y la serpiente, 2020

Volcanic stone

40h x 40w x 40d cm

15 95/127h x 15 95/127w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

 

 

Inquire
Diego Pérez

El perro y la serpiente, 2020

Volcanic stone

40h x 40w x 40d cm

15 95/127h x 15 95/127w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

El perro y la serpiente, 2020

Volcanic stone

40h x 40w x 40d cm

15 95/127h x 15 95/127w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Inquire

Diego Pérez

Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020

Volcanic stone

70h x 67w x 40d cm

27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020

Volcanic stone

70h x 67w x 40d cm

27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020

Volcanic stone

70h x 67w x 40d cm

27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020

Volcanic stone

70h x 67w x 40d cm

27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020

Volcanic stone

70h x 67w x 40d cm

27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

Silla del cánido colmilludo, 2020

Volcanic stone

70h x 67w x 40d cm

27 19/34h x 26 17/45w x 15 95/127d in

Unique

Inquire

Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

 

 

Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

 

 

Inquire
Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

Diego Pérez

El palacio con dos escaleras, 2020

Carved marble on wood base

114h x 100w x 30d cm

44 97/110h x 39 10/27w x 11 73/90d in

Unique

Inquire
Diego Pérez at his studio 

Diego Pérez at his studio 

Diego Pérez’s multidisciplinary practice continually plays with the idea of the border, be they the limits that divide art from other sorts of objects, those that divide art from the wider public, or those that separate contemplation from experimentation. The artist articulates a sculptural imagination in which every material is an inexhaustible source of forms whose relationships do not end in the work, but which extend towards environment and spectator alike.

Having started his career in the field of photography, Pérez has oriented his work towards the public life of objects, fomenting, not without a degree of humor and an affinity for fantasy, an inquiry about social relationships that give works meaning. It is in everyday life where a chair becomes a shelf, or where a box transforms into a plant pot; the art-life border is constituted and dissolved in the conjunction of public space, work, and spectator.

For Pérez, it is important to let imagination and daydreaming flow, because that is where the contact between apparently separate camps is produced – between artist and artisan, connoisseur, casual observer, and so on.