Since the early years of his practice, linked to the founding of the collectives A Ua Crag (1985–1996), Segundo partido de la montaña (1987–1988) and Red District (1990–1992), Sanmiguel Diest’s output has been systematic and methodical, with his extensive body of work, with hundreds of drawings and paintings, making up a catalogue in which the limits between image, text and representation become visible and also problematic. Standing outside conventions, chiefly those that are quick to rule on the obsolescence of certain languages in the modern era, his practice is situated in a field where historical depth can be recognised with references to art history, literature and popular culture. These works do not participate in a literal interpretation of the world surrounding us, but instead respond to a programme which settles into the simultaneity of images and texts, and official and subordinate, ideological or merely document-based discourses in a potentially infinite and circular mechanism that forces the gaze of those contemplating them to be resituated.
Reina Sofía
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