Felice Varini at Albarrán Bourdais in Menorca

On July 6th, Albarrán Bourdais opened a new gallery space in Menorca, in the old town of Mahon, just opposite the Teatro Principal. The three-floor townhouse underwent a delicate renovation, keeping traditional architecture details and aesthetics, and cleaning up spaces to accommodate contemporary art. Albarrán Bourdais, who have a gallery in Madrid, are also well-known for the Solo Houses project, an ongoing collection of architectural houses being built in Spain, just south of Barcelona. This project, inspired in part by the Case Study Houses in California, has realised two of the twelve intended houses thus far.

To inaugurate their new gallery in Mahon, they invited Swiss-born, Paris-based artist, Felice Varini, to bring the space to life through his iconic wall installations that use anamorphic illusion that play with the viewer’s eye. Five large-scale creations adorn the walls and ceiling of the gallery, using bold, almost neon-like colours including red, yellow and blue. For this newest installation, Varini took around fifteen days to bring it all together. While he works on the concept through floor plans and sketches, the paintings often shift and need to be adapted onsite, once engaged with the architecture and the light. Since the early 1970s, Varini has established himself as a pioneer in the study of geometry and colour. Influenced by Daniel Buren and Sol Lewitt, Varini has made interventions in a variety of spaces, from gothic cathedrals to the exterior of an industrial building. In Menorca, his voluminous, swirling paintings allow viewer to experience the gallery in a totally new way. You enter into and around his spatial creations, seeking out the meeting point or simply wandering without any intention but for visual curiosity. There is also a level of uncertainty or scepticism, when things don’t immediately line up or present themselves. We have to keep our minds open and ready.

The choice of Varini as the inaugural artist in Menorca fits well with Albarrán Bourdais’ vision of merging art and architecture, sensory experience and experimentation; Moving away from traditional white cube presentations and engaging viewers in a new way.

In the coming days, Varini will also open a new a series of new works for the spiral landscape of Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the landmark building in Seoul designed by Zaha Hadid. Varini’s spatial paintings extend alongside the building’s characteristic spiral hallway, accompanying visitors as they walk up the cultural centre.

Felice Varini will be on view at Albarrán Bourdais through October 26th, 2024.

Albarrán Bourdais

@albarranbourdais