The Galería Tomás March presents an exhibition of recent works by multidisciplinary artist José Antonio Orts (Meliana, Valencia, 1955).
Only a few months ago, Orts received one of the most renowned international sound art awards -the Deutsche Klangkunst Preis 2004- for an installation project created for the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl of Berlin.

After studying musical composition with Amando Blanquer (1974-85), Luciano Berio (1983), Iannis Xenakis (1985) and Yoshihisa Taira (1986-88), J.A. Orts was awarded grants for further studies in Paris and Rome. There, creating sculptures combining music and light by means of electronic circuits, he discovered the artistic possibilities of a project uniting music and fine arts. After his first solo show at the Sala de Exposiciones de la Universidad de Valencia (1991), Orts exhibited at the Fundation Maeght of St Paul, France (1995), at the Centro del Carmen of the IVAM, Valencia (1997), and later in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Guadalajarra and Montevideo, in the Berliner Festival Neuer Musik in 2000 and 2002, also in 2002 at the Instituto Cervantes of Brussels, in 2003 at the Kryptonale 9 Berlin. In 2004, Orts has shown at the Centro Cultural Sa Nostra of Palma, Ibiza and Formentera. Jose Antonio Orts has been living in Berlin since 2000 when he was an invited artist in the prestigious DAAD Beliner Kunstlerprogramm.
Orts' installations are unique in the art world. He uses interactive sculptures, sensitive to changes in light and movements of air. As the spectator walks by, he produces variations of light and sound. Apart from Germany, Orts’ work is also highly appreciated in France and Holland where it can be found in major museums (Centre Pompidou, Paris, etc...) and also in the most important Spanish collections (Fundacion ARCO, IVAM of Valencia, etc...)

"I don’t want my works to be purely inert objects. I am concerned with making them "living" works. I create sensitive pieces that pick up the spectator's energy. The underlying idea is that the best way to give "life" to a work is to borrow this life from the spectator or, in other cases, from the surrounding environment.
The final configuration of the piece is always rooted in its function, establishing a crucial harmony between the visual form and the effect it produces. I arrange the various elements of the installation in a given space using visual as well as sound and light criteria. The visual element is grounded in the very plasticity of the object and the architecture of the space, while the latter comes from the musical composition and the relationship between the spectator and the work itself. The electronic materials are not merely functional or accessory and are, in fact, intrinsic to the overall visual composition.
My installations are conceived to be rounded off by the visitor walking in and around them. In this way, the spectator actually inhabits the work and becomes a fundamental part of it because ultimately it is he or she who instills live into it, humanizing and completing it."

Jose Antonio Orts
Berlin, October 2004