Dennis Muñoz Espadiña

conceptueel - zine - performance

Dennis Muñoz Espadiña is an artist living and working in Rotterdam since 2018, The Netherlands. His artistic practice expands from publishing and performances towards installation works. Since 2022 he's running his publishing house ( Hocus Bogus Publishing) from the bowls of the Rotterdam art space Roodkapje . Here he gives workshops and mentor ships to artists and others who want to learn about Riso stencil printing.


Sticks and Stones - 2021, multichannel audio installation. Performers: Chandler Bullock and Fraukje van Burg Sound engineer and mastering: Paul Devens Video documentation by Dennis Muñoz Espadiña Commissioned by the Villa Mondrian museum in Winterswijk, I was asked to produce a new work based on an early work by Piet Mondrian (St. Jacob's Church with tree on the right). Of all the works by the young Mondrian, this drawing appealed to me the most. The drawing has a certain dark and cold atmosphere; the cold winter wind is palpable. The work also has something rough and unfinished; the lower part is roughly filled in by broad pencil movements. Mondrian paid the most attention to the tree. The beauty of this abstract play of lines made me, after looking at the image at length, suddenly think of a totally different play of lines: Black Metal logos. If Mondrian's oeuvre can be seen as a search for order; harmony and the sublime beauty of nature and man, the musical movement of Black Metal represents the other extreme: Chaos, misanthropy, and a dark path of dark and sumptuous grotesques. Nevertheless, similarities can also be found in the use of symbols and color: crosses; black and white surfaces, an intimate relationship with (human) nature and a spiritual layer. So perhaps if Mondrian had been born a century later, he himself would have been a big metal fan? My proposed work was a sound composition that aims to connect both worlds. I wanted a singing/sound performance to take place inside the church. One or more metal singers/voices improvised and play with the acoustics and sonic properties of the church. It will be mainly hard and soft sounds, from screams/grunts to whisper chants and spoken word; high and low notes. Starting point were a number of visual images which I produced by scanning tree branches around Winterswijk. With these images I created an abstract musical notation which was expressed through an intuitive interpretation of the voices. Major sources of inspiration are Pauline Oliveros and her Deep Listening practice; the sonic improvisation of Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, as well as the human need for meaning and expression through our voice.
Under the Rainbow – Over the Weather - Speculative fiction magazine with contributions by 16 international (comic)artists/writers/designers/curators/witches. Exploring the world in the 4th millennium through images, words and dream scapes. Plastic coil bound with plastic covers Transparent cover with “A Short Manifesto” by Dutch conceptual artist Stanley Brouwn. 48 fold out pages, 185x262mm (foldes out to 185x365) Riso printed on 100gr Munken Lynx by Hocus Bogus Publishing Edition of 150 2021 Cover design by Finn Melvin Caird Design, layout and proofread by Yahaira Brito Morfe Edited, printed and bound by Dennis Muñoz Espadiña Language: English
Fontein - 2020, 235x115x55cm French/Belgium Antique buffet, 50000 grams of dark chocolate, Stainless steel, heating elements, electronic circuit, temperature sensor, motor, Arduino. Installation view at Prospects & Concepts 2020 @ ART Rotterdam. Photography by Beeldsmits. Supported by Mondriaan Fonds, Stichting Stokroos and Fonds Kwadraat. Chocolate gushing out of an antique sideboard like a fountain. It looks like a childhood dream. But Fountain, as the sculpture is called, is the work of German artist Dennis Muñoz Espadiña. Through an ingenious system of pumps, heat regulators and timers hidden at the bottom of the cabinet, the chocolate is heated and pumped up before dripping down over the antique furniture. What solidifies along the way sticks to the cabinet as drips, slowly turning it into a kind of grotesque drip stone menace. Muñoz likes to work with apparent contradictions that he symbolizes by combining completely disparate things that nevertheless form a connection. The same is true of Fountain, which is a playful reference to the body. The work refers strongly to man as an organism within which invisible chemical and mechanical processes are constantly working to keep us alive. The openings from which the molten chocolate is oozing in and out act as anus and mouth. The process of melting and solidifying creates horrific, and at the same time sublime, expressions that seem to mirror that of us humans. Chocolate itself symbolizes this duality between dream and nightmare: a luxury food being won by child slavery, human trafficking and intense farming.
Cheesyphus - Cheesyphus 2019, variable length and dimensions Performance, cheese publication and tasting event. Realized and exhibited at A-Dash Space, Athens Greece, for the Time takes Time project. The title of this publication stems from its vacuum packed contents. Firstly it contains 12 printed cards on which images and symbols are printed on one side, while on the other it features a flash fiction story. By finding the right order of the cards it’s possible to read the story. The tale tells the story of a modern day protagonist with the name of Sisyphus, and how he falls in and out of love with a Dutch milkmaid. Secondly there is a piece of cheese inside of it. The cheese was part of a 12kg cheese wheel, brought by the artist from the Netherlands to Greece in order to re examine The Myth of Sisyphus in a modern context. After the cheese wheel had been pushed through Athens, it was cut in 24 parts and vacuum sealed together with the printed story. The project is both an investigation into how fiction and reality are constantly swallowing and consuming each other, and how suffering and pain gives rise to enjoyment and happiness
Stoel en Dans - 2018, 31.5x44.5 cm Hardcover handbound RISO printed 15 Pages, edition of 30. This work is a visual study into motion and idleness; carefully juxtaposed in such a way that a hidden image, or series of images, is created within the viewer’s mind’s eye. Stoel en Dans is a large format RISO printed picture book printed by visual artist and publisher Dennis Muñoz Espadiña in an edition of 30 copies. Literally meaning chair and dance, the title refers to the party game Musical Chairs. The materials were gathered by scouring old and new magazines such as DOMUS and Schöner Wohnen; art and furniture catalogs and photography monographs. Focusing predominantly on the human body, the images show contortion in various degrees of expression. How limbs and ligaments twist, warp and find a short lived refuge into a static posture. The images also provide a subtext into how painters, sculptors, carpenters and photographers find different ways to stage luscious tableau's in which these bodies are used as a mere prop. The publication’s size was inspired by the first offset printed art books in which paintings were for the first time reproduced in full color. Thus making it possible for artworks to be transported to the private homes of art lovers, and stored either in (presumably) oversized bookcases or being stacked on luxurious coffee tables.
Requiem for a Leto - Requiem for a Leto 2018, 00:11:13 Mashup short film, original format: HD-video 1920x1080 The actor Jared Leto finds himself trapped between a waking and dream state created through the re-editing of some of his most iconic roles.
House of Fortune - 2017, 600x300cm /circa 19 minutes Furniture, carpet, personal photo album, lamp, tablecloths, television, headphones, HD-Video. Installation view Slow Accident, Nieuw Dakota Amsterdam House of Fortune consists of a documentary which was recorded at the house the artist grew up in, and acts as a backdrop for the exploration of the artist’s own past and future. Leading roles are performed by the interior pieces found inside; his mother and grandmother, who are both still living in the house. The documentary was presented in an installation which consisted of furniture pieces taken from the house.
Schachsprüng - 2016, circa 30 minutes Performance, chocolate, paper, projection In collaboration with Theofanis Dalezios and Eva Vaslamatzi Performed at Cabaret der Künstler during the Manifesta 11 Biennial in Zürich. I created a fictitious psychoanalytic method by combining the Rorschach test and molten chocolate patterns. Thus reflecting on how meaning and order are constructed from apparently random images. By bringing together the rational with the absurd, the work reflects on how reality is perceived, and constructed through imagery and imagination.
Bredouille - Bredouille Showcase I 2016, 6x4x2.5m Mixed Media Installation Sandberg Instituut Graduation Burgerweeshuis Bredouille is an ongoing artistic project operating as a fictional luxury brand. Bredrouille is the French word for “empty handed”. The project deals with the relationship we have with objects and their role as status symbol and items of worship in our modern society. How do objects become valuable, and what methods can be used to achieve this value transformation?