Boîte-en-valise 13

This painting is conceptually inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s “Boîte-en-valise,” understood as a portable museum that condenses authorship, archive, and exhibition into a single object. Duchamp’s strategy of miniaturization and self-historicization functions here as a methodological precedent, prompting the work to operate not merely as an image, but as a museological unit that reflects on the construction, containment, and circulation of artistic legacy.

Formally, the work enters into dialogue with the blurred paintings of Gerhard Richter, particularly his use of projection and mediated transcription as a means of destabilizing photographic authority. Softened contours and suspended figuration position the image between document and interpretation, reinforcing its condition as both record and critical reconstruction. Oil on linen was chosen for its historical density and material flexibility, allowing layering and surface modulation to sustain this tension between image and archive.

The work forms part of “The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona,” the only section of the mini museum in which artworks are offered for sale. Within the broader framework of Davis Museum Barcelona—conceived as a readymade sculpture, an institution recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya, and a digital archive—the painting functions as an autonomous yet interconnected museological extension, articulating a continuity between post-conceptual painting and institutional critique.