Edgar Solórzano's 900 territories project comprises three moments in which, through different means, he explores a specific spatial experience: occupation. At first, the artist used a hundred metric sheets and gave each one a specific system to draw different shapes that fit their grid - an element that serves as a principle of spatial organization. In each of these one hundred pieces, he executed 900 different drawings. Despite their difference, all the drawings on a sheet originated from the same logic. Thus, for example, one contains regular triangle shapes that must or must not touch some point on the grid, while another has half circles that span or not the distance between their points. The modularity and repetition established by the grid on each sheet is occupied by the drawings that are developed according to a principle of repetition and difference.

Solórzano uses the grid (one of the paradigmatic elements of non-objective art since the beginning of the 20th century) as a means to investigate the infinite expansion capacity of the sign systems articulated by individuals. The multiplicity of drawings on each page is evidence of the potential for plasticity that the guidelines allow within a system, although on the surface these may seem like strong limitations. The realization of the 900 drawings per sheet, marked entirely in black ink, also exploits the use of the reticule as a vehicle for exploring the perceptual field. The contrast between the black ink and the white of the paper as well as between the regularity and irregularity of the shapes and sequences contribute to this aspect.

The second moment of the project comprises the pictorial register in a series of paintings, where the artist has drawn a grid in direct reference to metric paper. As with the pieces on paper, the artist assigns a system to each canvas and from it executes different solutions, which always keep a certain geometric order. In relation to the pictorial, the use of oil on linen reinforces the condition of occupation, covering and differentiating itself from the surface based on its particular materiality.

For the third moment of 900 territories, Solórzano has produced a three-dimensional piece that carries the same principles and idea of a system that both drawings and paintings have. Focusing on the corner as an intervention site, he creates an architecture that comprises two walls and part of the floor. On these surfaces draw a metric system: a grid punctuated by nails. As with the forms made with ink or oil, this object and spatial grid is occupied; on this occasion, due to the materiality of the stone. 300 mineral pieces, in total, have been cut following a particular system that determines the whole of this installation. Undoubtedly, this third moment of 900 territories is the one that most forcefully expresses the central interest in research on the occupation of space through the mass.

Daniel Garza Usabiaga