Alejandro Villa Duran

ALEJANDRO VILLA DURAN (B.1993) is an artist from Guadalajara, Mexico. He lives and works in London.

Alejandro´s work draws into the relationship of today’s market economy and the natural world, often trying to escape materialistic values ending in feelings of alienation. Finding reconciliation within his own wilderness, he investigates themes of meditation and magic that consider the balance between pleasure and pain. Through the body, Alejandro evokes feelings of queer ecology and nostalgia. His work is an immersive autobiographical experience where he attempts to fight his attachments to life borrowing elements from new-age rituals.

He expands a dialogue with the natural world, where he uses materials such as flora, recycled clothing, jewelry, and belongings modified by cutting and stitching, adding a narrative to the sculptures. The objects are often subjected to one of the four elements - fire, water, earth, and wind, manipulated by processes to create an uncontrolled outcome using nature’s tension, transformation, and decomposition.

Decay, death, and rebirth. Time becomes a medium where stages become part of the work, evolving as a performative element. Physical energy turns performances into ritualistic acts where actions awaken a shared connection; the artist, space, and the objects function as one organism. The performances are used as an antidote to today’s fast-paced society with elements of psychoanalysis. Each object is tied to a situation; altering it allows a subconscious release, giving it a new meaning.

Alejandro’s parafictional happenings and sculptures are invitations to his inner world. 

Born in Mexico, Alejandro lives and works in London.

The work moves between mediums; photography, sculpture, video, and performance.