Txema NOVELO

Profile

Born in Mexico in 1982, Lives and works in Mexico City.
Graduated with a MA in Flim from the Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts in France.
Txema Novelo is an Artist and Filmmaker. 

Recent exhibitions and activities:
2019 "Vestiare 9 Videobox" Le Carreau du Temple, Paris
2019 "Spiral Independent Creators Festival SICF 20" SPIRAL, Tokyo
2018 "Panorama 19" Collective Show, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France
2018 "Berlinale Talents" Short Film Lab, Berlinale International Film Festival, Berlin
2018 International Competition, Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Recent residencies:
2016 Casa Wabi Artistic Interdisciplinary Residency Program, Puerto Escondido, Mexico
2013 European Media Artists in Residence Exchange EMAP#EMARE, Bourges, France
2012 Artist in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Institut Francais, Paris, France

About works

Txema Novelo pays a great deal of attention to the space between the divine and the quotidian. His work is guided by the anthems preached in alternative rock music, the mysticism of religion, and altars that inspire prayer to a higher power - whether it’s to a deity, philosopher, or a divine personal practice.
Central to his work is the concept of Joy Division / Sad Divine a play on the basic Gnostic principle that humans are naturally divine beings yet divided from the spiritual realm by their own physical creation. Logically, this pairing would be Sad Division / Joy Divine but through its reversal, he tries to bring this gnosis with his medium of choice - Rock ‘n’ Roll - and at the same time throwing the principle’s core assumption into critical perspective. Through remapping Western and Oriental Holy Scriptures upon the mythologies of twentieth-century popular music and culture, he is trying to reintroduce a sense of the sacred into contemporary art and cinema.