Art Madrid'24 – Óscar Seco
Óscar Seco
Madrid, 1964
Since the late 1980s, Óscar Seco (Madrid, 1964) has developed his work through the appropriation of images drawn from various contexts: artistic tradition, posters, cinema, comics, and design. He has also incorporated literary references, particularly texts that delve into the fantastical to establish a critical boundary with reality, from Borges to Philip K. Dick. The integration of external images and the unexpected collision of narratives serve as the primary tools in shaping his discourse. In addition to an extensive body of pictorial work, Seco has created an unclassifiable body of videographic production, closely tied to the cinematic resources of B-movie science fiction. Some of his audiovisual works were filmed within his models, which constitute one of the most fascinating aspects of his practice: three-dimensional diorama-like structures that reconstruct spaces marked by collapse, remnants, and destruction.
Óscar Seco's work confronts us with the beauty of what has been relegated and challenges narratives that take the obvious for granted, stopping their inquiries precisely where the core of the problem lies. The most fitting answers may lie forgotten in the backroom of high culture, in the shared memories of our childhood, or in the flipside of the utopian narratives of modernity.