Kromosomak

23 plastic art pieces, all white and clearly marked with an “X”. With his collection “Kromosomak” [Basque: Chromosomes] the artist Jose Pablo Arriaga points out the equality of all human beings. We all consist largely of water and are placed into shape by the 23 pairs of chromosomes, which mainly do not differ between people, neither in their structure nor in their form. While most of the art pieces appear in a set of two layers, some chromosome pairs are made up of three pieces or appear solo. In this way, the Basque artist clearly distances himself from any misconceived egalitarianism or from a neglect of diversity, and underlines that his collection cannot be understood as an attempt to standardize. On the contrary, his collection gives space to the fine differences and thereby underlines that we are ultimately all human beings.

Yet, the collection does not end with the 23 pieces, since only all 23 chromosomes together finally make up the human being. Equally, the cupboard “Kromosomak” consists of 23 layers. Whatever will be stored behind the big “X” of the door of the cupboard -be it little or lots of money, sportswear or music sheets, philosophy books or supermarket advertising, the cupboard eventually remains the same.