José Quintanar (Madrid, Spain, 1984) lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He is an artist with a background in comics and architecture. Using the book as the principal format for his work, José Quintanar explores the possibilities of drawing as a game and the ways in which it serves as a primary method to establish processes based on rudimentary rules.
He founded a publishing project, RUJA PRESS. A place where to explore and experiment with the format of the book.
Ph.D. researcher at UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA MADRID. His research is about the book as a public space.
UN PAYSAGE HOLLANDAISE - A Solo show at MY MONKEY GALLERY.
May 2021. Nancy. FRANCE
A DUTCH LANDSCAPE - Solo exhibition at IS A GALLERY.
April 2021. Shanghai, China.
UNA SILLA PLEGADA (A folded chair) - “Una Silla Plegada” ( A Folded Chair)
Artist’s book / Printed by Papier machine
32 pages / 29,7 x 18cm / Two-color Riso Ink.
Published by RUJA PRESS / December 2019
José Quintanar Iniesta - The smoke signal is a form of visual communication used over a long distance, to transmit news, signal danger, the selection of a new Pope, to mark positions during the war, or gather people to a common area. A primitive way of making something public.
The Smoke Signal Library is a project by Ruohong Wu & José Quintanar. It’s a collection of second-hand books arranged and mixed to construct cross stories. A board game where we experiment and research about new possibilities to construct knowledge.
Periodical Publication edited by RUJA PRESS
RUJA PRESS - RUJA PRESS is a project since 2013 by Ruohong Wu and José Quintanar. By sharing the same workspace they have founded a multidisciplinary studio Ruja Office, where they develop and research on curatorial, artistic, pedagogical and architectural projects. Ruja press is born on one hand with the idea of archiving and arranging all the material produced in the workspace, both as collective and individuals; and on the other hand, as a way of making their personal obsessions public. They have also started the zine series Friends, which is to understand that Ruja Press is also a way of gathering people who enrich them, from profession to everyday life. Ruohong and José often understand books as architecture. That is, not as a simple data container, but a structure in itself where everything (ideas, images, the weight of paper, number of pages, printing technique ...) is interrelated. Books are introduced as a temporal and spatial device to construct alternative public spaces.
We perceive publishing as our artistic practice. We make books from a strong political and social conviction. But above all and principally, we make books for fun.
THE SMOKE SIGNAL LIBRARY - The smoke signal is a form of visual communication used over a long distance, to transmit news, signal danger, the selection of a new Pope, to mark positions during the war, or gather people to a common area. A primitive way of making something public.
The Smoke Signal Library is a project by Ruohong Wu & José Quintanar. It’s a collection of second-hand books arranged and mixed to construct cross stories. A board game where we experiment and research about new possibilities to construct knowledge.
Published by Ruja Press
A DUTCH LANDSCAPE III. FROM SURINAME TO THE NETHERLANDS - ADutch Landscape is the exercise of synthesizing a traditional and historic art subject in Netherland to a simple drawing game using very rudimentary rules and constrictions. Playing with the concept of appropriation and settling, the book works as protocol, as ritual, or as a narrative device where the same landscape is drawn again and again until to disappear.
In From Suriname to the Netherlands, the third publication of the series, José explores the notion of colonisation through the convergence of two different kinds of Dutch landscapes. Colonisation of the territory, of the landscape, but also of other cultures of the past.
The book is built from two landscapes, that of Suriname’s – an old Dutch colony – and the Netherland’s. Each landscape is drawn over and over again building a series of ten drawings each. In each drawing, the rules of the game have been progressively altered so that each drawing of the same landscape is always different. Interestingly, the rules used in landscape A are the same rules applied in landscape B but inverted. And in this way, A and B only make sense when they are connected within the temporary space format of the book. As a result, the concept of the publication, drawn from geometric patterns of circles that grow in each drawing, in turn, also becomes the narrative of the work.
A DUTCH LANDSCAPE OF 26 DAYS - During 26 days, 7 hours per day, @josequintanar_artist has been working in the Shower Project. The idea is to play with the shower space of an old Textil Factory in the center of Rotterdam. The aim of the project is to research how can a space related to the hygiene and care of the workers be transformed into a new work format for me. "A Dutch landscape of 26 days" is a drawing in time constructed with 26 lines, always the same, that change their position every day during 26 days.
A DUTCH LANDSCAPE OF 26 DAYS - During 26 days, 7 hours per day, @josequintanar_artist has been working in the Shower Project. The idea is to play with the shower space of an old Textil Factory in the center of Rotterdam. The aim of the project is to research how can a space related to the hygiene and care of the workers be transformed into a new work format for me. "A Dutch landscape of 26 days" is a drawing in time constructed with 26 lines, always the same, that change their position every day during 26 days.
