Max de Esteban
Bio
Max de Esteban is an artist who works primarily with photography and video, and is known for his exploration of the human condition under technological regimes. His projects have been exhibited at museums and institutions such as Jeu de Paume in Paris, NRW Forum in Düsseldorf, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Deutsche Technik Museum in Berlin, MACBA in Barcelona, CGAC in Santiago de Compostela, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Max has participated in the Cuenca Biennial (2023), Yokohama Triennale (2020), 13th Cairo Biennial (2019), 13th Havana Biennial (2019), 16th Fotofest Biennial (2016), and Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie Triennial (2014).
His work has been the subject of five monographs: Aesthetics of Extinction (Turner), 20 Red Lights (Virreina/La Fábrica), Proposiciones (La Fábrica), Heads Will Roll (Hatje Cantz), and Elegies of Manumission (Nazraeli Press). His works are held in the collections of institutions such as the Deutsche Technik Museum in Berlin, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, CGAC in Santiago de Compostela, Wifredo Lam Center in Havana, and MACBA in Barcelona.
Max is a Fulbright alumnus and holds a PhD in Economics and Business from Universitat Ramon Llull, an MBA from Stanford University, and an MSc and BSc in Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
Statement
AESTHETICS OF EXTINCTION
infrastructures of contemporary capitalism
Aesthetics of Extinction is a long-term art project on the infrastructures of contemporary capitalism. The project surveys key infrastructures that will define the 21st century.
For this project, infrastructures are characterized as the key technologies, systems and physical conditions that enable the circulation of meaning and power.
This expanded definition points to the fact that what infrastructures really do is to frame and enable what is possible. Infrastructures are the determinants of the conditions of possibility; are the enablers of meaning and as such, set the limits of our imaginations.
Additional information
A Forest indaga en la inteligencia artificial y en la ya evidente creación de un poder no humano, que nos adentra en un territorio desconocido que a su vez genera nuevos imaginarios.
El vídeo muestra una única toma de un lento recorrido a través de bosque de sequoias, el legendario árbol
californiano. Debe ser invierno, dado que las ramas están desnudas. Una densa niebla envuelve el paisaje,
añadiendo un manto de misterio. Proyectos dentro de “Estética de la Extinción” es un proyecto artístico de largo aliento que examina las infraestructuras del capitalismo contemporáneo —tecnologías, sistemas y condiciones materiales que determinan cómo circulan el poder y el significado en el siglo XXI. Cada obra, ya sea en video o fotografía, aborda una infraestructura específica (finanzas, inteligencia artificial, ingeniería genética, desigualdad, crisis ecológica) y propone una narrativa crítica que combina investigación rigurosa, escritura guionada y construcción visual. Las obras se presentan bajo la forma de fábulas contemporáneas que tensan los límites entre lo real y lo imaginado, lo académico y lo poético. La propuesta desafía al espectador a reconsiderar los marcos invisibles que condicionan nuestra existencia cotidiana.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
