Jose Barrias. Collector of echoes

Volume published on the occasion of the exhibition “José Barrias. Collector of echoes”, New Morone Gallery, Milan, 21 September – 10 October 2017.

Starting from the title is perhaps an obvious but clarifying way of proceeding. Who is a collector of echoes? And what does an echo collector do? He is perhaps related to the Wandering Shepherd of Asia and the Almanac Seller? Without a doubt a dust collector…
The phrase is extrapolated from a writing by Barrias himself who tried to give a definition of himself, fitting definition above all due to the strong appropriationist charge that distinguishes it in every area, literary as visual. Just cross the threshold of his studio, which essentially differs nothing from a Wunderkammer, to realize that the heterogeneous elements contained therein – objects, written, Arteam Cultural Association, photo, sculptures, etc… – constantly reverberate in each other; they return as if caught in the undertow in that strange underground visual perception laboratory that is his atelier. Like in a cave, he collects objects of interest and affection, placing them in a secluded place dedicated to hidden and shady gestation. [from the text by Elisabetta Longari]