Sculptures, drawings and poems explore the mouth, teeth and the act of chewing as a way of sculpting matter and intervening in the world. Javier Mansilla investigates the oral impulse as an expression of personal concerns and of the relationship between the intimate and the collective, as in Poemas dentales, a project that addresses the social, emotional and political dimensions of teeth.

“In this sense, the artist’s proposal to consider the act of chewing beyond its nutritional function, as a way of sculpting matter, allows us to see bitten objects (pencil caps, ice lolly sticks, polystyrene cups) as manifestations of personality disorders or dysfunctions whose intensity shapes the material. Or as the manifestation of a being searching for itself in the outside world, reflected in the mark it leaves on the bodies it intervenes in. […] Thus, every chewed object should be examined carefully as the manifestation of a restless spirit, for reasons that remain to be deciphered” (Juan Pablo Hiriart).

Javier Mansilla is a Chilean visual artist and writer based in Barcelona. His practice lies at the intersection of painting, writing, installation and performance, exploring the relationships between the body, language and territory. Through artistic devices that bring together image, voice and space, he investigates the symbolic and material dimensions of contemporary experience.

His work moves between exhibitions, performance and pedagogy, understood as spaces for experimentation, transmission and knowledge production. He has presented his work in Chile, Spain and Portugal, combining artistic research and mediation. He is currently exploring new ways of approaching the contemporary landscape through painting and urban experience.