L 21 gallery Madrid announces the solo exhibition by Rafa Forteza (Mallor-ca, 1955) “Pull or lengthen your nose” where the artist presents sculptures that have been created over the last 25 years. There have been numerous shows of Rafa Forteza ́s paintings, but his sculptures, however, are less known. “Pull or lengthen your nose” is a personal exhibition in which he shows a more subjective work which he constantly experiments with. They are works which have been articulated from small elements which the artist joins, ensembles and sticks. They are very open pieces and in continuous flux– their creative process end when the piece leaves the artist ́s hands. On this occasion, the artist decides to give the spectator the chance of dis- covering a very intimate space in its production. Some of the sculptures sit on pedestals made from the boxes used for transporting them and the spec- tator perceives the silence in that which is not shown.

The sculptures come from different periods and even though they are not a series and each one Works perfectly on its own, it is possible to put them together as theirs is a common language. They have been created from an alphabet

which Forteza has been obtaining and developing, they talk to each other and to the artist who listens to them to understand them and complete them. It is they that ask for modifications and wait for him. The vocabulary is the same from his beginnings in sculpture tied with string up to the present ones, joined with paste, but the concept of wrapping is the same.

Forteza is not interested in showing his works in a guided or tutorial fashion and that is why the sculptures are shown, accumulated on one of the walls of the gallery, breaking the concept of a given route. Additionally, this mon- tage facilitates the dialogue amongst all of them. As an artist, he has always wanted to look further than his nose and to go beyond his own limits. For him it ́s necessary that the spectator does the same. There are no instruc- tions to understand his works. The artist takes the spectator ́s nose and pulls it so it goes where it ́s never been before and you look at his work… and you start to understand his language…and finally you speak to it…and it speaks to you.

Rafa Forteza ́s works are found in pretigious collections worldwide such as MOMA (New York), MNCARS (Madrid) and the Pompidou Centre (París), amongst others. In 2016, the contemporary arts museum Es Baluard in Palma de Mallorca, will show a wide retrospective of his work.