MENDIZABAL, Asier; HERRÁEZ, Beatriz (ed.)
Recto Verso

Conceived as an anthology of the works and writings of the artist, author and educator Asier Mendizabal (Ordizia, 1973) from the last two decades, this book alternates between four different sections, four recurring modes: a long interview, a series of questions posed by various collaborators, the documentation of a selection of past exhibition projects, and a compilation of facsimiles of brochures published by the author since 2008. The aim of this concatenation of sections is to counteract and rethink the linear progression often suggested by monographic catalogs and the “biographical illusion” on which it rests, to use Pierre Bourdieu’s words from a famous 1983 text. Recto Verso thus offers an actualization of the reflection on what an artist’s life, after several decades of work, can be, and how to translate this in the form of a book.

The book includes an essay by Kim West and a long-form interview by Beatriz Herráez, punctuated by questions from Filiep Tacq, Lisa Tan, Jon Mikel Euba, Antonio Menchen, Alex Valijani, Johanna Gustafsson Fürst, Itziar Okariz, Olatz Otalora, Antonia Majaca, Pablo Lafuente and Koenraad Dedobbeleer.

Asier Mendizabal is an artist and author who has been involved in several educational projects in addition to his current position as professor of sculpture at KKH, Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. His work developed from an early interest in the way in which the reconstruction of Basque culture in the 20th century adopted the language of abstraction through a singular translation into popular and political uses. The representation of the collective, the construction of identity and the role of technique in these phenomena have been recurring themes in his work, which has often been described as a critique of ideology. His practice confronts conventional narratives of history, archival or ethnographic objects, or political and subcultural representations, looking at the technical and material conditions of all of them. Writing is a regular resource in his practice, always in relation to sculpture.

[publishers’ note]

Published by Paraguay Press, 2026
Design by Filiep Tacq
Monographs / Artists' Writings