Abel Azcona facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Abel Azcona
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Abel Azcona
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Abel Luján Gutierrez
1 April 1988 Madrid, Spain
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| Known for | Performance Art, Process Art, Body Art |
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Notable work
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| Movement | Conceptual art, Performance Art, Process Art |
Abel Azcona Marcos (born on April 1, 1988) is a Spanish artist. He is well-known for his performance art, which often involves him using his own body. His art also includes installations, sculptures, and video art. Some people call him the "enfant terrible" (a French term meaning "terrible child") of Spanish contemporary art, because his work can be bold and sometimes surprising.
His first artworks explored ideas about personal identity, difficult experiences, and how much pain a person can endure. Later, his art became more focused on social and political topics, making people think about important issues.
Azcona's art has been shown in many famous places. These include the Venetian Arsenal in Italy, the Contemporary Art Center in Málaga, Spain, and the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art in Colombia. His work has also been seen at art events like the Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka and Taipei, and the Lyon Biennale. In 2014, the Bogotá Museum of Contemporary Art held a special exhibition just for his work.
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Early Life and Growing Up
Abel Azcona was born on April 1, 1988, in Madrid, Spain. His mother left him at the clinic where he was born a few days later. A man who knew his mother took him to Pamplona, where Abel spent his early childhood.
His first four years were difficult, as he moved between different homes and faced challenging situations. Because of this, his birth was not officially registered until he was four years old.
When he was four, a young woman who volunteered at a prison met the man who had brought Abel to Pamplona. She helped Abel get baptized and her family started to care for him, especially on weekends. When Abel was six, his situation became more stable. The family officially adopted him when he was seven years old. They also helped him attend Catholic schools. However, he found it hard to fit in and was expelled from school when he was thirteen.
How His Name Changed
Abel Azcona has had several official names throughout his life. His biological mother chose the name Abel. When he was first registered at the clinic, he was named Abel Luján Gutiérrez, using his mother's last names.
He wasn't officially registered with the government until he was four. At that time, the man caring for him registered him as Abel David Lebrijo González. Later, his second last name changed to Raposo, after the man's new partner.
When he was seven, he was adopted and became Abel David Azcona Ema, taking his adoptive mother's last names. His adoptive family preferred to call him David, not Abel. At fifteen, his adoptive mother's husband adopted him, and his name became Abel David Marcos Azcona. After a family process, his last names were switched, making him Abel David Azcona Marcos.
When he turned twenty, he decided to drop the name David. He started using Abel again as a way to honor his biological mother and to feel more free from his adoptive family.
First Artworks
Abel Azcona began creating his first performances in 2005 while studying at the Pamplona School of Art. These early works were often critical and aimed to highlight important issues. During these years, Azcona used his own difficult experiences as inspiration for his art.
His artworks started to gain more attention around 2011 and 2012. However, in 2012, he faced mental health challenges and received help at two clinics.
Azcona left his adoptive family when he was eighteen. He then moved back to Madrid and lived in difficult conditions for almost two years. During this time, he continued to create art, sometimes performing in the streets of Madrid.
Important Art Projects
Someone Else
Someone Else is an artwork that combines ideas and performance. It opened the 2014 Queer New York Arts Festival. For this piece, people had to physically touch Azcona to enter the event space. A famous art critic, Hrag Vartanian, chose this work as one of the top ten in New York City that year.
The Shame
In 2018, Azcona created The Shame along the West Bank Wall. He placed pieces of the original Berlin Wall next to the wall in Israel, which separates lands. Azcona used this to make a powerful statement by bringing the two walls together in his art. The actual installation is still there, and photos and videos of it have been shown in many countries.
The Death of The Artist
The Death of the Artist was a performance in 2018 at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. It was a way for Azcona to bring closure to a series of his earlier works. His previous art had sometimes led to threats and difficult situations for him. During this performance, Azcona read a statement about artists being brave and independent, both in life and in their art.
Spain Asks for Forgiveness
Spain Asks for Forgiveness is a conceptual and performance artwork that questions historical events. It began in Bogotá, Colombia, in November 2018, with a talk and live performance by Azcona at the Bogotá Contemporary Art Museum. In his first action, Azcona read a text for over four hours, repeating the phrase "Spain Asks for Forgiveness" many times.
Two months later, he showed his work in Mexico City. He put up a large cloth banner with the same sentence. Soon after, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, publicly asked Spain for an apology. This artwork then grew into a collective movement. In May 2020, the Bogotá Contemporary Art Museum painted its building's front with the motto "España os pide perdón" for two months. Other cities like Havana, Cuba, and Lima, Peru, also featured the artwork through paintings, posters, and protests.
The Shadow
The Shadow is an artwork that includes performance, an installation, and photography. It aims to bring attention to cases of child abuse. In this piece, Azcona highlights the stories of people who have survived such experiences. During each show, Azcona would perform live on a wooden swing, sharing the survivors' stories.
Eating a Koran
Eating a Koran was first shown in October 2012 in Berlin. This work was part of a series where Azcona used symbols from different religions, like the Koran, the Bible, and the Torah, to make a statement about religious groups. In this particular performance, Azcona spent nine hours eating pages from a copy of the Koran. This artwork caused a lot of discussion and even led to threats against the artist.
The work was performed again in Krudttønden, Copenhagen. Azcona then started an art collection with other artists, including Lars Vilks and Bjørn Nørgaard, who had also faced threats for their art. Together, they held performances and talks about freedom of speech. In 2015, the Krudttønden building was attacked by terrorists during one of these talks. Later, the artwork Eating a Koran was bought by a collector and given to Krudttønden for its permanent exhibition.
Political Disorder
For Political Disorder, Azcona joined many different institutions and political parties in Spain. The artwork included dozens of original documents, membership cards, and payment records showing his affiliation. This piece, where Azcona joined groups from across the political spectrum, was a way to critique a system that sometimes focuses more on money than on true beliefs.
Azcona became a member of groups like Falange Española, Vox, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, and the Popular Party. He also joined organizations with political connections, such as the group Hazte Oír and the "Christian Lawyers." This project lasted several years and ended with an exhibition in Switzerland in 2017. In this exhibition, Azcona showed the letters he received when he was expelled from each of these political parties and organizations.
Buried
Buried was created in 2015 through a public performance in Pamplona. Azcona invited dozens of family members of people who were shot or disappeared during the Spanish Civil War. These descendants stood in a line in front of a monument, symbolically buried with soil from a garden where some of their relatives had been shot.
In 2016, the city of Pamplona invited Azcona to show his work inside the Monument to the Fallen, which had been turned into an exhibition hall. The project was recreated there under the title Unearthed. This exhibition brought together the Buried project and parts of Azcona's other works.
There are symbols that cannot be covered. The Monument to the Fallen of Pamplona is a clear example. Fighting this symbol with another is what Navarrese artist Abel Azcona has proposed, known for his performance, sometimes controversial and often linked to the body. In this case, Azcona does not propose this new art exhibition as a war between symbols, but as an invitation to arouse feelings and, also, as a claim. For him, it is about inciting memory, individual and collective (and, therefore, historical).
Desafectos
In 2016, Azcona organized another performance with relatives of those who were shot in the Pozos de Caudé. Called Desafectos, Azcona formed a human wall with the relatives as a protest. This took place next to the wells outside the city of Teruel, where over a thousand people had been shot during the Civil War.
The Nine Confinements or The Deprivation of Liberty
The Nine Confinements, also known as The Deprivation of Liberty, was a series of performances from 2013 to 2016. All of them explored the theme of being confined or having freedom taken away.
The first in the series was in 2013, called Confinement in Search of Identity. Azcona planned to stay for 60 days in a small space built inside an art gallery in Madrid. He had very little food and was in complete darkness. The performance had to stop after 42 days because of his health, and he was hospitalized. Azcona created these works to reflect on his own mental health challenges, a theme often seen in his art.
Another confinement lasted nine days at the Lyon Biennale. Azcona stayed inside a garbage container placed in the center of the Biennale. This was a way to critique how artists and the art market sometimes work. One of the last projects in the series was Black Hole in 2015. Azcona again stayed in a small, dark space with little food in the same Madrid art gallery. This time, different unknown guests shared the confinement with him. Azcona didn't know who they were and couldn't see them. Visitors to the gallery learned about the experience from those who entered and left the confinement with the artist. All these projects explored what it means to be deprived of things like food, water, electricity, and contact with the outside world.
Artistic Style
Azcona's art often pushes his body to its limits. His works are usually connected to important social issues. Azcona says that his art aims for more than just looking good; he wants to make viewers think and react. He uses his own body to represent critical and political ideas.
Many of his performances are about his own life, focusing on themes like abandonment, difficult experiences, mental health, being confined, and life and death. A key part of Azcona's work is that he sees his pieces as a process. This means they often last a long time. Many of his works start with what he calls a "detonator" – an initial performance. From that first action, new movements and protests can grow, making the artwork a continuous discussion.
Images for kids
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Abel Azcona
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Azcona during The Death of Artist at Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid
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Azcona's Los Padres, Madrid
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Azcona's Los Padres, Madrid
See also
In Spanish: Abel Azcona para niños
