The Eye of Truth.

By Elena Oliveras


The work of Augusto Zanela is, without doubt, complex. Not only in its conception or installation of the work calculated in situ "which will then be photographed, but also the network of conceptual relations, ie in the system, the viewer must discover.

Everything points to recreate the visual rhetoric of Mannerism, and in particular, the anamorphosis (meaning of "way back"), optical phenomenon produced by the representation of an object along an axis of non-traditional perspective.

The starting point, as befits an artist-architect, is the choice of space to house the facility. By using different materials (wires, tapes, vinyl, etc..) Zanela proceeds to construct his work turning anamorphic forms in the selected space. These forms are "correct" then the plane of the photographic record, from the point at which it is located the eye of the camera. Thus, the irregular or deformed back to a perfect form of rigorous geometry and, at times, symmetrical. For Anamorfía: cube reflection. Room 4. Centro Cultural Rojas. 2001, the reconstruction becomes more intricate game view mirror all the elements, including himself, in a huge mirror.

The common factor in all the work of Zanela is detachment of the illusion of truth homocentric and static. The eye of man ideally occupy a central place, like Brunelleschi wanted, not the eye of truth. Should we find, rather, in a shaky eye looking for the best "never end" point of view, so that truth can only be as a movement.

At a time when the media insist on it always the same and puts us in a state of ennui and indifference, Zanela still believes in the possibility of art to break the normal state to develop an active look, reflective and critical open , among others, these questions: From where we look when we look? "Who sees us when we look? What is given us to watch?