ROMULUS x THE ARMORY SHOW, SEPTEMBER 24–27, 2026ROMULUS x THE ARMORY SHOW, SEPTEMBER 24–27, 2026
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ROMULUS x THE ARMORY SHOW, SEPTEMBER 24–27, 2026ROMULUS x THE ARMORY SHOW, SEPTEMBER 24–27, 2026
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Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance

Adrián Villar RojasThe Theater of Disappearance, 2017

Ivy, coloured lights, recreation of parietal pictographs, pixacao and roman period graffiti, floor tiles and blocks of moroccan marble encrusted with ammonites and orthoceras fossils, fossilized turtle shells, neolithic stone tools, septarian concretions

Installation view at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (ground floor), 2017

About the artist

has built a practice working across multiple forms of media to create immersive environments and experiences that evoke a state of perpetual space-time travel. Evolving his methodology over many years towards topography-based, mutant, organic-inorganic systems, the artist invites viewers to become explorers of an unpredictable microcosmos—where the future, the past, and alternate versions of our own present interact as a constantly changing totality. Through this world-building, Villar Rojas posits the question: what if we could see and think of ourselves—humanity—from an alien perspective: detached, unprejudiced, even amoral? What if we could see and think of ourselves from the border of our own completed path? Villar Rojas has been recipient of numerous awards, including: the Sharjah Biennial Prize, awarded by the Sharjah Art Foundation (2015); The Zurich Art Prize at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv (2013); 9th Benesse Prize in the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Nuevo Banco de Santa Fe Scholarship for Young Artists (2006); and first prize in the Bienal Nacional de Arte de Bahía Blanca at the Contemporary Art Museum of Bahía Blanca, Argentina (2005). In 2020 he was nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY.

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Adrián Villar Rojas

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Adrián Villar Rojas

From the series 'Return the World' (Bells, 2), 2012

3 parts, clay (unfired), cement, wood, metal

74 13/16 x 78 3/4 in (190 x 200 cm) 55 1/8 x 72 13/16 in (140 x 185 cm) 63 x 61 in

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Adrián Villar Rojas

From the series 'Films Before Revolution', 2013

Wood, metal, glass, stain glass, inkjet on paper, watercolor, fluorescent lamp, cable

53 3/4 x 72 5/8 x 77 3/16 in(136.5 x 184.5 x 196 cm) 81 1/2 in (207 cm)(height when opened)

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Adrián Villar Rojas

From the series 'Los Teatros de Saturno', 2014

Iron, gesso, clay and pigments

34 3/4 x 69 9/16 x 19 5/8 in

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Adrián Villar Rojas

The Most Beautiful of All Mothers (XII), 2015

Site-specific installation; organic and inorganic materials

133 13/16 x 114 1/8 x 129 1/8 in (340 x 290 x 328 cm) Option 1: 163 3/8 x 114 1/8 x 129 1/8 in

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Adrián Villar Rojas

The Most Beautiful of All Mothers (IX), 2015

Site-specific installation; organic and inorganic materials

102 5/16 x 70 1/16 x 85 3/8 in (260 x 178 x 217 cm) Option 1: 131 7/8 x 85 3/8 x 74 3/4 in (335 x 217 x 190 cm) Option 2: 102 3/8 x 85 3/8 x 74 3/4 in

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Adrián Villar Rojas

Two Suns (II), 2015

Site-specific installation

David: 43 5/16 x 57 1/16 x 185 1/16 in (110 x 145 x 470 cm) Base: 40 3/16 x 9 13/16 x 41 5/16 in (102 x 25 x 105 cm) (each)

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Adrián Villar Rojas

From the series The Theater of Disappearance (XII), 2017-2018

Site-specific installation

85 3/8 x 133 1/2 x 93 1/4 in (217 x 339 x 237 cm) (overall)

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Adrián Villar Rojas

The Theatre of Disappearance, 2017

Nylon-printed and polyurethane cnc-milled reproductions of human and non-human animal figures, food and artefacts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection, coated in bespoke automotive paint, porcelain tiles, diamond plate flooring, hollybush hedges, public bar, signage, benches, adapted and repainted pergola

Installation view, The Roof Garden Commission at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2017

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Adrián Villar Rojas

The Most Beautiful of All Mothers, 2015

Cement, resin, white polyurethane paint, lacquer, stratified organic, inorganic, human and machine-made matter collected in Istanbul, Kalba, Mexico City and Ushuaia

Installation view on the shore of Leon Trotsky’s former house on Büyükada Island, 14th Istanbul Biennial, 2015

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Adrián Villar Rojas

Planetarium, 2015

Organic, inorganic, human and machine-made matter including compost, cement, gypsum, pigments, sand, soil, ropes, obsidian, smithsonite, dogtooth calcite, jeans, sweaters, trainers, mollusc shells, tree branches, gastropod fossils, canaries, finches, parakeets, shark fins, corals, crabs, lobsters, fungi, watermelons, oranges, corn, sprouting potatoes, germinated beans, pumpkins, collected in Kalba and Sharjah

Installation view at the 12th Sharjah Biennial, Kalba, United Arab Emirates, 2015

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