La aportación de Román Gil al libro de artistael autorretrato sin fin

Resumen

Abstract This research is an attempt to place the work of Román Gil within the artist book tradition. In his maturity stage, he himself has made it possible for an image to become its verbal representation, as well as enable a written text to become a visual image. Now it is also the time to incorporate to this incipient discipline, part of the genealogy which has turned the structure of a book into the meeting place of all the temporal elements constituting the spoken languages. It is at this point that we have sought to prove if, in Gil's work, there can be found that genuine artistic value which can allow us to grasp the meanings of the imagery through its form. The control factor to which we want to refer, and which contains the graphic, sculptural and pictorial values of the whole itinerary originating the structure of the written systems, is which we tend to believe that implicitly underlies, rather than writing, its layout. Paradoxically, it is in the work of an author creating artist books and explicitly renouncing the written word, where we look for the hermeneutics of those symbols which have attained to make reality tangible, with the greatest possible precision available to us. But it is not our aim to understand it from his point of view but to enquire if the plastic images can express themselves through an object, -the book-, which has been conceived as the place for the temporal contingency given in speech. Hand in hand with Gil's work, known as the Román Files, we have ventured into the prehistory of writing, in an attempt to understand how it is possible to arrive at encrypting in it all the ritual of the plastic arts experience, and how, in the process, such a specific object as a book, which to us has the same conceptual level as a picture, takes on life. Furthermore, we have observed this artist's creative process to discover how he manages to transfer the specifics of the self-portrait pictorial genre to the artist book discipline, considering that this author renounces the formal representation of the plastic arts data related to the anatomic and psychological resemblance. We have also examined his capacity to refer to reality through the sensory organs governing unaccounted for sensitive areas, aiming to discover if the images he draws from these experiences come from life or derive from a metaphorical cultural character. Later still, we enquired into his academic background and his selective affinities which could have influenced his character, and his decision to make an art out of a medium which seems to have been created to reflect the perceptual materialization of reality through the word. From this standpoint, we have been able to understand how Gil brings up to date the canonical model which originated the first libraries to appear, through the artistic series he produces and on the basis of the order he sets on his own artwork. Lastly, we have analyzed his production as well as the materials he uses, in an attempt to grasp his way of combining pictorial genres by means of experimental materials and alternative procedures, which go beyond their customary uses and functions. Artist book, self-portrait, anthropology of art, expanded painting, synaesthesia, art technics, symbolic form. Objectives Main objective: Bring to the public eye Román Gil, an author unjustly left unknown within the artist book tradition. 3.2 General objectives: To analyse the evolution undergone by the artist book both as regards its definitions as well as the artistic categories it sustains. - Find out which artistic concept underlies Román Gil's production, known as Román's Files, with the purpose of verifying if his work can be duly inscribed in the artist book canon History of Art offers. 3.3 .Specific objectives: - Discover at what point the specific features of the self-portrait genre are formalised in Román Gil's artistic production and decide if such features are grafted into the concept of artist book this author develops. - Understand the manner in which Román's Files' internal logic operates in order to determine if such logic shares the fundamental aspects of writing, without there being any idiomatic representation. - Assess the impact Román's Files has on the artist book canon. - Discover the symbolic factors intervening in Román's Files to identify them and, if they were found, prove if such factors contribute to conform his own self in a way in which it can be valid as a form of self-portrait. Detect if in the process of Román Gil's artistic production there is some inherent peculiarity which can be used to explain a sense or a moral idea of good. - Test if in Román's Files there is a full idea of art's function or if, on the contrary, there is only a serial game ad infinitum which an artistic production plays, without intending to reflect on such a function. - Observe if in Román Gil's work there is a social use of the senses which is different from the established one, especially as regards taste and smell. If this were the case, extend this study not only to his work but also to its titles, and weigh if that has some particular aspect relating to the time and space conceptions. Methodology The method used in this research has been qualitative, and has enabled us to organise the artist book canon and place Román Gil's work in it. To that end, we conducted a descriptive study on the basis of field work, which is traditionally inferred on the basis of a selection of certain research technics; in our case, it has been an in-depth interview, the artist's educational model, the active observation and the analysis of the discourse arising from the action and movement of the author in the ritual production and exhibition scenes, as well as the specific documentation resources. We have divided our research work into two parts, whose first stage has been ethnographic or descriptive, which has led to the hermeneutic or interpretative study. The object of our study has been considered in the light of anthropology. The research technics applied here are mainly based on his life story, the active observation and the ethnographic interview, which aimed at organizing all the elements involved in this author's artistic production. Conclusions Underlying this production there is an artistic decision to create a kind of artwork which employs the book structure but which is orphaned in terms of idiomatic references and possibilities of mechanical reproduction. These two facts move us to question the real limits in which the artist book concept is immersed. The internal logic operating in Román Gil's Files, reflects an attempt to include those problems and their answers, which were involved in the transference system from the spoken language to the written language. Thus, his interest in avoiding all references to idiomatic representation derives from the symbolic game which the genealogy of writing may tend to favour. In the so-called Román's Files, the author establishes a self-portrait model which is free from the servitude of resemblance. This allows him to display a range of technical and expressive resources round the idea of self-consciousness, which can be periodically revised by the artist. The authority principle he sets over his own work makes the artist book concept which Gil develops, to expand its limits to the notion of self-fulfilment. Román's Files have had an impact on the artist book canon and altered its semantic field. Up to now, it had never been assigned to this discipline the possibility of interpreting the origins of writing as a structural factor in the artist book concept. Therefore, it can be claimed that Román's Files have both a verbal and iconic quality, where words are renounced but not so concepts. In Román's Files there are a series of symbolic factors which affect the materials employed and the technics used. Such factors play the part of an iconic writing which makes it possible to anchor the idea of a subject who is capable of referring to a notion felt as a never-ending self-portrait. Through his approach towards work, Román Gil has shown a vital attitude reflecting his conscience of himself, which springs from his direct relationships with the others. This behaviour, which transcends his work, is rooted in his idea of moral good, and is the structural principle of his own self underlying the entirety of his work. This vital approach has led to generating the concept Book/Library for the artist book discipline. Through his Files, Román Gil has achieved to express a vital interest in the function of art. And the means which he has given shape to that project has been the recurring use of the artist book discipline in connection with the symbolism involved in the artistic self-portrait genre. This model of expression is reflected in the meaningful correspondence between the intimistic tone of his production and his own home-studio. In the work of Román Gil it is evident an interest to relate the plastic art experience to different experiences and sensory channels of perception, which is verified by the synesthetic proposal made by his titles and the elements from their content which transcend his plastic art-work. The way in which Román Gil uses his materials, beyond its artistic aspects, involves an inquiry into the communication processes which sustain art. This is shown by his concern to consider the logic of the spoken book and the alphanumeric writing as part of nature, giving special attention to the 'quipu' and everything referring to the rites associated with writing. The educational model which consolidated Román Gil's academic background has impressed on him a creative attitude, ready to solve problems inherent to art, which is typical of an individual whose profession is that of an industrial engineer. This problem-solving approach has led him to bring into being a kind of work which presupposes the examination of the foundations supporting art, as well as the artistic procedures themselves.