Madrid,
It is considered above all sculptor, but has also addressed other disciplines, and its proposals, from constant philosophical, literary or musical references, appeal to the interiority of the human being (soul, body, expression) and their primary needs: to the inexplicable that we Define as people. These reflections build works that, more than as objects, can be understood – that is their claim – as materialized ideas and likely to be related to each other.
After presenting at the Cristal Palace, by the hand of the Reina Sofía Museum in 2018, the three silent figures, in steel mesh, which were integrated by their “Invisible” project, Jaume Plensa returns to Madrid to star in the Telefónica Foundation space the anthology “Inner matter”, which deepens its treatment of issues such as communication, identity or human condition itself through a set of works dated from the nineties to the present.
In those three decades, Plensa has evolved since the abstraction and the conceptual purposes of its early production towards figuration and sensuality; representative pieces of that tour have been selected for the occasion (Glückouf?, The Neige Rouge, invisible or those female faces of Rui Rui’s Words either Maria) and also closely linked to those continuous concerns of Catalan: the fragile, silence and language, the spiritual inclination inherent in humanity.
The exhibition opens with the documentary of Pedro Ballesteros Can you hear me?that delves into its creative process, its personality and work philosophy, and with the model of Iris (2024), a monumental piece that has prepared specifically in the Centenary of Telefónica; He will join his art collection. We will contemplate below Self-Portrait (72 kg) (1993) and the Triad of Poisophue. Self-Portrait I, II and III (1998), in which the artist gathered data on his body weight and physical complexion in a specific period of his life to turn those figures into a metaphor about identity in a general sense, the presence and physical characteristics and the relationship between body and environment. These concepts also determine the subsequent sculptural series Silence (2016), which integrate seven female faces placed on wooden beams that allude to the diversity and similarities of human identity regardless of geographies and invite a reflection on who we are, individually and as part of more or less extensive communities.
In the Foundation we are also waiting for us Love Sounds (1998), an installation composed of five alabastro cabins in which Plensa replied the sound of its own blood flow, thus inviting the visitor to discover the particular soundtrack of their body, and Invisible (2016), a representation of a possible metamorphosis of the human being from three unfinished faces, made with steel meshes, which remain suspended in the air and are crossed by the light and detained over time. With those faces, some of their female sculptures of closed eyes -ho, here, Maria (2018) and Rui Rui’s Words (2021)- With which the artist wants to underline the importance of granting site to introspection and silence.
It must be emphasized to conceive the human figure as an inevitable artistic destination, rather than as a historical approach to the past, even if it is implicit: all sculptural representation of a head evokes the original; Also the absence of a character or its importance, in the case of a monument. These conventions are present in their creations very subtly, but since the primitive images, the effigies of this author are an abstraction of all of us and the human condition in our relationship with their context: they invite us to perceive the space in another way, and They concentrate and radiate this space from their transparency.


From the eighties, the interest of plensa in volume and space led him to explore the management of iron with the foundry technique, in sculptures that incorporated cuts and folds; and new materials joined their usual their own, such as glass and resin. Lights and sounds were also added to their proposals, favoring their potential to modify our perception of places. In any case, he has always declared that his great raw material is the ideas and at their service all material development remains: in The Neige Rouge (1991), cast iron is transformed into light and energy to connect directly to the viewer from that lightness.
It also evokes the water, to which Plensa resorts, in addition to its links with life, change and movement, to turn it into a narrator vehicle: this happens in Freud’s Children (2001-2002), a series of sculptures that are displayed here throughout a room, such as islands in the ocean. Each is made up of hands or faces fragments in contact with water suggested by a fractured human psyche, but also the healing power of that element. As for your sound use, we can see The Secret Heart (2014), a heart painted in white bronze that refers to the text Das Geheimherz der Uhr (the secret heart of the clock) of Elias Canetti and here is accompanied by a voice watch with those of men and women of Augsburg in the real course of the seconds, minutes and hours.
In relation to your sound treatment, we will contemplate Glückouf? (2004), its famous curtains of letters that collect literal sections of the 1948 human rights declaration and that invite the visitor to cross them, being wrapped by a tangible work; Il Suono del Sangue Parla La Stesa Longua (2004), in which the word is claimed as a symbol of the human connection; and Lilliput (2012-2020), a network of nine figures and letters executed in bronze with stainless steel, rope and paint and that show their inner space, in which words have an open meaning still being thoughts.
One of its most recent pieces that offer this theme of language is the aforementioned Iris (2024), symbol of the power of communication and human connection and therefore acquired by the Telefónica Foundation; While silence approaches us in WHHO ARE YOU? I-VIII (2016), a call to serene meditation in a noisy world: eight small bronze figures cover the organs that indicate the senses to lock themselves inside.


Jaume Plennsa. “Inner matter”
Telefónica Foundation
C/ Fuencarral, 3
Madrid
From October 17, 2024 to May 4, 2025