Jaime Avila, the legend
When the pandemic began in March, one of the most complex situations to manage was occupying my children's time, who had already put together all their Legos, puzzles, and watched all the movies possible. One day, during a long call (as they usually were), Jaime Ávila gave me some great advice: make a house with blankets and chairs. My motor skills are terrible, but Jaime's instructions were precise and so we managed to put together a complete castle that has been the children's center of operations ever since.
And that was Jaime Ávila, a sensitive genius who could always bring a smile to our faces, change a situation, make us discover something, rethink an action. All with simple observations and suggestions, almost all of them full of humour.
We have been fortunate to follow his career for nearly 10 years and from the first show he did with us (Pirate Talent) until our last meeting four weeks ago, he arrived at the gallery with a laugh. It was impossible not to know he was there, his joy always gave him away, never disoriented, never upset.
Working with Jaime was a huge challenge, his mind was going a mile a minute and it was imperative to concentrate to keep up with him, he would always talk about his past and future work, weaving everything together through funny stories, personal and family histories, and sharp comments about fashion, cities and people. In the end we ended up with hundreds of projects to do, one of which is a book about his work that we are working on with Santiago Rueda.
When we were at openings and I introduced someone, I always did it as “Jaime Ávila, the living legend” and he didn’t like it because he said he wasn’t a legend. But he was and he knew it. He was aware of how his work motivated many artists to explore new materials, to articulate discourses about the urban, to look at the environment and to understand ourselves globally. And it is for that reason, for that capacity to surprise, that his exhibitions were always a reference and were talked about, because we were all waiting for his new research, his new projects. He maintained the tension and anxiety of his audience and always, without exception, surprised us, because each project was radically different from the previous one both formally and conceptually, but always achieving a great articulation with the general work.
Jaime was a dear friend, his support and contributions to our gallery were enormous. He was always generous.
He devoted himself to all tasks and I know how much he enjoyed preparing his pieces for the most recent version of Arco in Madrid, where we proudly exhibited his latest work, the capitols and the White House made with textile patterns, which were celebrated by the public. He took photos in front of these works with many people, and with his cell phone he recorded thousands of moments during that week in Madrid, a city he loved. Keeping up with Jaime was impossible; he always wanted to see everything, go around everything, read everything, understand everything, and he recorded the moments of daily life in Madrid in videos and photos.
A keen observer of his time, a magic maker, who could build castles with blankets, images of informal commerce with CD boxes and centers of power with textiles. Someone who showed us that art is and will always be there and it is precisely his works that remain with us to always remember the great Jaime Ávila, the legend.
Carlos Hurtado
