JORGE MÉNDEZ BLAKE

Jorge Méndez Blake (b. 1974) is a mixed-media, conceptual artist from Guadalajara, Mexico, whose work revolves around books, libraries and literature. An architect by profession, Méndez Blake has evolved a conceptual language, both reductive and metaphorical, that translates literary texts into images, sculptures and installations – referring to the great masters of universal literature, such as William Shakespeare, Jules Verne, Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges, among many others.. Based on his belief that “writing is itself a kind of construction and reading is a way of creation”, he transforms the literary into the spatial thereby giving a physical dimension to the act of reading. His work focuses on the themes classic authors pose through their books, as well as the value of literature as a means of communication and a depository of knowledge; quite fittingly, Mendez Blake produces and catalogues his work in a series of conceptual chapters, each focusing on a different theme, author or approach. Mendez Blake also explores the notion of “library”, understood not only as a receptor that accumulates knowledge, but as an object with infinite formal possibilities; an institution whose purpose is the preservation of books and the dissemination of knowledge. The artist sees libraries not as isolated buildings, but as constructions that hold inexhaustible sources of information, and are thus able to create microsystems that address specific issues such as landscape or love.