Adrián Irisarri’s artistic practice is rooted in an intimate relationship with the imagery and collective imagination of his hometown in Navarre. Entitled Dioramak, the work draws upon the format of the diorama to propose a visual game based on the manipulation of the proportions of a scene or landscape. In this intervention, the portico of the church San Martin Obispo is transformed through the insertion of miniature models depicting landscapes and settlements inhabited by human and animal figures.
By manipulating scale, the artist produces a conceptual shift that opens a space for fiction and fantasy within the public realm. Viewers are invited to engage in an exercise of perceptual reduction, imaginatively projecting themselves into these miniature worlds. At the centre of the installation is a large-format photograph documenting the Palomar de la Taconera in Pamplona, a local landmark that disappeared in 2015. This ornithological and vernacular dimension is reinforced by the concealed presence of small txantxangorri (European robin) figures. Likewise, both the bench and the canvas covering the freestanding structure feature a repeated ornamental pattern derived from the progressive abstraction and formal simplification of a bird species native to the area where the artist lives.
Finally, the work incorporates a recurring strategy within Irisarri’s practice: the insertion of his own body as a character within the fictional world he constructs. On this occasion, this performative self-referentiality is embodied both in the image of the ladder and in the video projection that complements the installation.
Adrián Irisarri (Garinoain, Navarre, 2001) is a visual artist. He graduated in Fine Arts from the EHU and completed a master’s degree in Painting at the same faculty a year later. His practice revolves around image and scenography, taking shape through the interpretation of his own territory, an attachment to it, and the fictions that emerge from its construction.
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