Jorge E. López

“I am convinced that many people would like and relate to my works, if only they had the opportunity to become acquainted with them: I never identified with the notion of ‘New Music’. Rather, I was driven from the beginning by the need to manifest and actualize the primordial. I don’t search for the new, rather I seek to liberate that which has been repressed. I don’t believe in progress in art (there hardly is such a thing), but do believe in progress in the technology through which art is realized.

My roots and sources lie partly in western art music, partly in surrealism (understood as method), in science and in the experience of wilderness. The motivation for creation originates in myself and is always connected to a strong effort of will – with respect to overcoming social barriers, overcoming the bourgeois concept of culture, overcoming the artificial boundaries between the various art forms. This effort of will intends to achieve an effect. In my opinion a work of art should be a ‘group-meditation’, led by the artist, which unfolds in time through music, theatre, film, video.”
Jorge E. López, September 1999

“If the concept of originality – or even authenticity – still means anything today, this concept is personified by Jorge E. López. López is unique – this without any need to display the marketable label of ‘outsider’. His works have the weight of true Opus, but remain open structures, transparent unfinished processes that cling to all possible perimeters in order to protect and simultaneously manifest their intimate monumentality. Borders and peripheral areas are central in López’ work. The massifs, the abysses, the winds and the chasms are the territory he loves. He plunges down, climbs up, hammers and squeezes in, God knows, enormous dimensions. Sounds alone have long since ceased to be music enough for him: image, movement, and theatrical setting break their way in. Everything expands, and a marvellously deep – and sustained – breath risks tension to the breaking point. An artist steeped in conflict, who dares not to fear the sublime.”
Wolfgang Rihm, 4. Februar 2000