Le Désir Cinétique..." by David Medalla at Baró

One of the "Bubble Machine" sculptures by Filipino artist David Medalla (1938-2020) is reactivated at Baró, in Paris, alongside a historical panorama of six decades of his work, curated by Rolando J. Carmona in collaboration with Mountains, Berlin. Conceived in the early 1960s and also known as "Cloud Canyons," these sculptures use basins and tubes through which water and soap circulate continuously, generating slow, unrepeatable foam formations that rise and dissolve in real time—Medalla described them as "autocreative," a term coined in dialogue with the "autodestructive" art of his colleague Gustav Metzger, who called him the first master of this trend. In his 1965 Mmmmmmm Manifesto, the artist wrote that his sculptures would breathe, sweat, cough, and dance, among other verbs that lent life to the mechanical movement of the foam. Paris played a central role in Medalla's formation: his first performance in France, in 1960, was presented by philosopher Gaston Bachelard, and years later another performance of his was introduced by surrealist poet Louis Aragon—the city also hosted his work in historical exhibitions such as "L'informe: mode d'emploi" at the Centre Pompidou and "Live/Life," curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, both in 1996.