Xabier Salaberria’s work uses objects and materials from a place that allows him to detach them from a pre-determined reading to rediscover meaning in another configuration with their context. The work is not a sculpture or image; it is the way in which they are situated in a space that we do not normally see, that we assume to be a simple container. Salaberria often talks about de-naturalisation, meaning the desire to look at things again to understand them as ideological and cultural constructions, and question their universality. It is a constant and subtle unveiling of the mechanisms that sustain and organise the space. These mechanisms are part of the construction of an image of the world that is domesticated and reduced to its representation, which is also naturalised as reality.
Xabier Salaberria lives and works in San Sebastian. Salaberria’s training period is linked to the Arteleku Art Centre, where he has participated in workshops such as those led by Txomin Badiola and Ángel Bados in 1998, or Peio Irazu that same year, a space for meeting and discussion that remained a place for work and reference over the years. The numerous residency programmes in which Salaberria has participated have resulted in long periods abroad —giving his work greater visibility—, as well as collaborations on projects curated by Peio Agirre, Chus Martínez, Lars Bang Larsen, and Catalina Lozano, among others. Among his recent exhibitions, of particular note are: Una exposición sin Arquitectura, Museo Artium Gasteiz (2021); r de radio, CarrerasMugica, Bilbao (2020); Ganar Perdiendo. CentroCentro, Madrid. (2019); Restos materiales, obstáculos y herramientas. 32nd Biennial of Sao Paulo (2016); Can-ni-faire, CarrerasMugica (2016); Proceso y Método. (A.T.M.O.T.W.) Xabier Salaberria. Guggenheim Bilbao (2013); The Society Without Qualities. Tensta Konsthall. Stockholm (2013); and Inkontziente-Kontziente (Scenario1 about Europe). GFZK, Leipzig 2011.