Jorge Satorre. Did I say I miss you? (Bilbao).

The work I am presenting in the studio space is an adaptation of an exhibition with the same title I had last summer at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios in Dublin. I started off from a drawing based on a written description of the inside of a tiny room with a door opening onto the gallery in Dublin. Inside it there was nothing but light switches, the closed-circuit system and cleaning products. The effort of imagining the space from the meticulous text that Michael Hill, the exhibition’s curator, had sent to me and the attempt to represent it in a drawing, was my way of foreclosing the impulse to explore my affective relationship with Dublin or any history associated with the site. And so, in this way, the main sculpture, made from bramble branches collected in Artxanda, established a certain distance from the Irish art centre and its audience, in contrast to the insect drawings, which sought to appeal directly to visitors. Now, here in Bilbao, I believe those distances are reversed and are inevitably shorter. I live here, and I produced the work with the help of friends, recovering and integrating a vague memory of forms belonging to another work that can also be traced back to this place some years ago, when I was just beginning to get to know it.

For some time now, I have been trying to speak about my own work in this reductive and highly technical way, commenting on and sometimes delving a little deeper into the role that distance has played in each case. Interpreting myself and communicating like this helps to put my mind at ease.

At the same time, the point of departure for the series I am presenting in the corridor space was the idea of changing scale and reproducing religious medals and pendants by observing them through a magnifying glass, initially with the idea of bringing them closer to the stone figures carved on the façades of churches. By means of this device, which also implies distance on my behalf, I could somehow counteract the strange feeling of realising that for a large part of my life I have worn the miniature representation of strangers around my neck.

The structure of Did I say I miss you? was produced by the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. The ironwork is by Adrián Castañeda.

The series Impulso que estás dentro, sal de mi cuerpo was produced in the Iturribide Etxeagarden, with the support of Caniche Editorial and AC/E’s residencies programe PICE.

Jorge Satorre, Mexico City, 1979. Lives and works in Bilbao.

His work has been seen in solo shows in various institutions and galleries, including: Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin (2025); CA2M, Móstoles (2025); CRAC Alsace, Altkirch (2021); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2018); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2017); Galería Labor, Mexico City (2017, 2014, 2010); Artspace, Auckland (2013); Le Grand Café, St-Nazaire (2010); FormContent, London (2010), among others.

As a curator he has organized the groups show Café con leche, piña, huevo con jitomate, cebolla y cilantro, CarrerasMugica, Bilbao (2022) and Modelling Standard (jointly with Erick Beltrán), Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona (2011) as well as the solo show by Alberto Peral Redonda, Redonda, Tecla Sala, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona,(2021).

His work is in major collections such as: Frac des Pays de la Loire, France; CNAP on deposit in CAPC Bordeaux,France; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain; Museo Tamayo, Mexico; Jumex Collection, Mexico; MUAC, Mexico; Estrellita Brodsky, USA; De Bruijn-Heijn Collection, The Netherlands; Davis Museum, USA; Denver Art Museum, USA; Fundación Botín, Spain.

Case 1

Series of 5 pieces (Allen).

Hexagonal-section steel bar, bent at 90°, on magnetised wall

Sequence of 4 models, dimensions variable.

Allen keys awaiting some form of response which is now reproduced on the wall.

The hexagonal shape of the nuts responds to a search for balance between manoeuvrability and mechanical strength. These are the main reasons. Ease of use in confined spaces: because it has six sides, it only needs to be turned 60 degrees for the key to engage again with the next flat face. A square nut requires a 90-degree turn, making work in tight spaces almost impossible. If it had more than six sides (for instance, an octagon), the faces would be so small that the tool could easily slip under pressure. Movement, barely begun, revolves around its starting point. The hexagon is the limit at which stability can be maintained, as long as the operator remains focused on the gestures of the task. Grip and torque. The hexagonal design offers multiple points of contact and an excellent distribution of force, enabling high torque to be applied without the tool slipping or damaging the edges (what is known as “rounding” the nut). Between the square and the circle, the hexagonal form.

Case 2

Untitled

Various types of wood and steel

230 x 80 x 74 cm.

The prestige of applications imposes a limit on the world of needs.

Case 3

Disolver la escultura (Dissolving [the] Sculpture)

Corten steel and wood structure

305 x 80 x 160 cm.

The operation of making laws, rules and devices inoperable, in order to enable new possibilities for action beyond the original function. The loss of perspective.

Case 4

Mapa de superficie (Surface Map), partial piece

White polystyrene 270 x 150 x 15 cm and chipboard bench 240 x 55 x 45 cm.

Overall dimensions variable.

Originally a table-tennis table turned into an artifact displayed outside the confines of the protected art space of the exhibition hall. Two sheets of polystyrene, with the regulation size of a table-tennis table, occupy the playing surface. A pristine fragile material is exhibited to the public without instructions.

Case 5

Mapa previsto (Planned Map)

Wood, glass and steel

600 x 300 x 300 cm.

The photographs do not follow a chronological order. Instead, the arrangement is based on the documentation of an event: the dismantling of a sculpture–workshop located on domestic land, following a complaint that claimed that the construction was illegal. The sequence brings together visual documentation and official reports.

Case 6

Untitled. “Las sillas son espías del Estado” (J. Durham).

The artist Jimmie Durham once said that settlements emerged when we stopped being nomadic and that they brought with them forms of permanent architecture like castles and fortresses. The new infrastructure demanded that all human activities, whether intellectual or practical, be directed towards it. What makes its signature legible is labour: chairs are spies.

Case 7

Línea de inestabilidad (Line of Instability)

Stone, wood and plaster.

Dimensions variable.

A number of objects and raw materials are camouflaged around the outside of the house, partly abandoned. On several occasions, during days spent cleaning and tidying up this outdoor space, they were set aside from others that ended up in a skip. Other similar materials disappeared. As a result of this permanency, they eventually ended up in the exhibition space. Objects with no fixed category or function that were left for years in a state of waiting and which, now, in their new arrangement, speak of dynamics and movements associated with trades and machines.