Dani Marti 

Language/Language group: Spanish, English
Website: www.danimarti.com
Instagram: @danimarti0

My action brings together two works, Songs of Surrender (2004-21) and Still life under the Stars (2021) that explore the interior and exterior landscapes of the human body and its relationship to illness, mutation, deterioration and fear.

Songs of Surrender revisits a visual diary I started in August 2004 where over five months I documented myself at the start of each day as I injected a new drug that had just been added to my ‘chemical cocktail’ treatment for my HIV condition. This was an anxious time as it was the last option left for me to control the viral levels in my body. The act of self-documenting allowed me to distance myself from my experiences, but at the same time it became more tangible, as if the disease could almost be touched at the end of my fingertips.

All these images have been sitting in my hard drive since then, dormant; not re-visited nor edited. It is only after the events of last year that I decided to look at them again. This also triggered the creation Still life under the Stars, a series of videos and plastic sculptures that have been melted and transformed through a process of heat and pressure. Together, these works are reminders of the vulnerability of the body and mental health, and its capacity for strength through it all. A journey. 

Artist bio

Dani Marti was born 1963 Barcelona, Spain. Lives and works in Cessnock, Australia and Barcelona. Marti works across video, installation and public art. His unorthodox woven and film works turn to wider notions of portraiture and sexuality in modernism, minimalism, and geometric abstraction. Since 1998, Marti has held over 40 solo exhibitions,  and most recently he exhibited at Cinco Relatos con un Punto de Vista, 2020, MUSAC, Leon, Spain; Friendship as a Way of Life, 2020, UNSW Galleries, Sydney; The Public Body .02, 2017, Artspace, Sydney; Black Sun, 2016, Perth International Art Festival; Mutacan con las mujeres, 2015, Centro Cultural Mutacana 100, Chile; La Vida es Esto, 2015, Domus Artium Salamanca, Spain; Adelaide Biennial, 2014, Gallery of South Australia.

The first major monograph of his work was published by Hatje Cantz in 2012.

22.02.2021


My father was a doctor. I remember at very early age (maybe around seven, nine or eleven) looking at his laparoscopy slide collection. Endless close-ups of diseased livers and ulcerous stomachs. The inner body under the spot light. Mesmerising.

Dark caves, gentle valleys in endless reds, stalactites in shades of milky yellows.

Dani Marti, Still Life – Pink, 2021
Sound: Richard Chartier using excerpts from ‘Variable Dimensions’ 2020 (LINE, US)


23.02.2021

 

Visual diary part 2 (August)


24.02.2021

 

2020 - what has happened? 😱

Maybe the positioning of the planets will reveal the answer: Mars - Jupiter -Saturn - Pluto in Capricorn…

Maybe not.

Dani Marti
Still Life – yellow/white, 2021

Sound: Richard Chartier using excerpts from ‘Variable Dimensions’ 2020 (LINE, US)


25.02.2021


Visual diary part 2 (November)


26.02.2021

11 December, 11am, 2020, mother dies in Barcelona.

Cycling with salty eyes in the Hunter Valley, Australia.

The screaming of cicadas deafening my senses. I stopped, and recorded their call. They resurface every 17 years.

Upon receiving the invitation to be part the 52 ACTIONS, I started working on 11 landscapes of new endless valleys and shadows.

Heat and violence underlying every act of creation and transformation.

Denial. Anger, Acceptance.

Creating new lush, unspoken landscapes to dream in.

Dani Marti
Still Life – Green, 2021

Sound: Richard Chartier using excerpts from ‘Variable Dimensions’ 2020 (LINE, US)


27.02.2021


Visual diary part 3 (December)



Past Actions

07 Jun - 13 Jun 2021

Unbound Collective

31 May - 06 Jun 2021

OLC Art Collective

24 May - 30 May 2021

Naomi Hobson

17 May - 23 May 2021

Adrft Lab

10 May - 16 May 2021

Pat Brassington

03 May - 09 May 2021

Eddie Abd

26 Apr - 02 May 2021

Loren Kronemyer

19 Apr - 25 Apr 2021

Guo Jian

12 Apr - 18 Apr 2021

Kenny Pittock

05 Apr - 11 Apr 2021

Jannawi Dance Clan

29 Mar - 04 Apr 2021

Gillian Kayrooz

22 Mar - 28 Mar 2021

Nathan Beard

15 Mar - 21 Mar 2021

Pilar Mata Dupont

08 Mar - 14 Mar 2021

Michael Cook

01 Mar - 07 Mar 2021

Seini F Taumoepeau

22 Feb - 28 Feb 2021

Dani Marti

15 Feb - 21 Feb 2021

Lill Colgan & Sab D'Souza

08 Feb - 14 Feb 2021

Chris Yee

01 Feb - 07 Feb 2021

Rochelle Haley

25 Jan - 31 Jan 2021

Karrabing Film Collective

18 Jan - 24 Jan 2021

Nici Cumpston

11 Jan - 17 Jan 2021

Johnathon World Peace Bush

07 Dec - 13 Dec 2020

Aphids

30 Nov - 06 Dec 2020

Raquel Ormella

23 Nov - 29 Nov 2020

Léuli Eshrāghi

16 Nov - 22 Nov 2020

Rolande Souliere

09 Nov - 15 Nov 2020

TV Moore

02 Nov - 08 Nov 2020

Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu

26 Oct - 01 Nov 2020

Ivey Wawn

19 Oct - 25 Oct 2020

Naomi Blacklock

12 Oct - 18 Oct 2020

Sancintya Mohini Simpson

05 Oct - 11 Oct 2020

Yhonnie Scarce

28 Sep - 04 Oct 2020

Ruha Fifita

21 Sep - 27 Sep 2020

Kaylene Whiskey

14 Sep - 20 Sep 2020

Adam Linder

07 Sep - 13 Sep 2020

Archie Barry

31 Aug - 06 Sep 2020

Min Wong

24 Aug - 30 Aug 2020

Hayley Millar-Baker

17 Aug - 23 Aug 2020

Erin Coates

10 Aug - 16 Aug 2020

Diego Bonetto

03 Aug - 09 Aug 2020

Tyza Hart

27 Jul - 02 Aug 2020

Larissa Hjorth

20 Jul - 26 Jul 2020

Louise Zhang

13 Jul - 19 Jul 2020

Henri Papin (Meijers & Walsh)

06 Jul - 12 Jul 2020

Stelarc

29 Jun - 05 Jul 2020

Rainbow Chan

22 Jun - 28 Jun 2020

Jason Phu

15 Jun - 21 Jun 2020

Abdul Abdullah

08 Jun - 14 Jun 2020

Patricia Piccinini

01 Jun - 07 Jun 2020

Brook Andrew

25 May - 31 May 2020

Radha

18 May - 24 May 2020

James Tylor