The world needs a little more Escif. The illusive but highly productive Spanish artist has been working on series of paintings and drawings for years now, but one of the threads he has been exploring in recent times is works in collaboration with his young son, Otto. Part of this idea is about uninhibited expression, and also an exploration of the rebellious freedom that comes from graffiti and how that can be applied in spirit to a child making art. Now Escif has taken. this to a whole new level with OTOITO at CTAV, Valencia, Spain, where Escif has curated a show of new works alongside collaborations with both his son and his father, Ito.
The space between Ito and Oto occupies 70 years, 60 cm and 50 kg of distance. It is a formless and changing space that gathers an infinity of variables and possible coordinates. It is a nameless space in which all words fit. It is an abstract and multidimensional space. It is the space of silence in which this project takes place.
Ito is my father. Oto is my son. Otoito is an exercise of search and encounters. Mainly of encounters. Ito finds Oto. Oto finds Ito. I find the encounter between two positions. Oto paints. Ito draws. I arrange and observe. I remain attentive. I am surprised. I let myself be carried away by the uncertain. We meet. The three of us, we meet.
The space between Ito and Oto occupies 70 years, 60 cm and 50 kg of distance. Between the child and the adult a third language sprouts. It is not the sum of them. It is not the subtraction. It is the mist that allows the child to be an adult and the adult to be a child. —Escif