Exhibitions
Carlos Pazos looks at himself again
ADN Galeria hosts an exhibition that revisits five decades of self-representation and irony, where the artist questions the construction of one's own image.
Carlos Pazos (Barcelona, 1949) returns to ADN Galeria with an exhibition that revisits, questions and continues one of his most recognized lines of work, the manipulation of one's own image as a field of experimentation. The exhibition, with the title And the worst always happened in dreams , is part of a journey that began five decades ago, when the artist decided to become the object and subject of his art. Taking advantage of the fiftieth anniversary of the project Voy a hacer de mí una estrella , the exhibition brings together pieces that reformulate the self-image as a construction, as fiction and as an artistic strategy, but from a new perspective, more disillusioned, without losing the ironic tone but with greater awareness of the passage of time.
Voy a hacer de mí una estrella, Carlos Pazos (1975)
As is usual in his career, Pazos starts from the narcissistic game with his own image to question representation and authenticity. In the new series Más cornadas da el arte (2025) , made with photographer Roberto Ruiz , he appears in four vertical portraits that function as a disenchanted response to his iconic series. Instead of projecting the figure of a star in the making, these portraits convey the burden of a role that drags on, a certain wear and tear, a kind of micro-resistance to the passage of time to which any character who wanted to be a pop icon seems to be condemned.
Voy a hacer de mí una estrella, Carlos Pazos (1975). Cortesia de l’artista i ADN Galeria
A new version of I'm Going to Make a Star of Me (1975) is also presented, now in the form of a single print that brings together all the images from the original series. The exhibition is completed with other pieces that maintain this dialogue between fiction and identity. This is the case of Robados , a work that shows a Carlos Pazos very different from the one who controls his image. Here we see him more exposed and more vulnerable. In the exhibition, we also find two recent pieces, De l'Ego (2023) and its evolution Brillantando el Ego (2025). The first is made with LEGO construction pieces and the second in metal. In addition, you can see for the first time En busca del tiempo perdido 1: Scoubidou (1976), a video in which the artist appears playing with a colored plastic thread. This piece, contemporary with his series on the star, unpublished until now, evokes a certain childish attitude, a flirtation with the passing of time and the desire to suspend it.
Robados, Carlos Pazos (2008). Cortesia de l’artista i ADN Galeria
The exhibition, which can be visited until August 23, invites us to continue exploring the gesture of representing ourselves and questioning the reality that is hidden behind the images. Pazos does not aim to define an identity, but rather to put into crisis the ways of constructing it, offering fragments, disguises, contradictions and a gaze that has mutated over time.
De l’Ego, Carlos Pazos (2023). Cortesia de l’artista i ADN Galeria
