JULIO BEKHOR: Everything Is Connected

Artist Julio Bekhor adopted the above phrase from Da Vinci from the very beginning of his formal exploration, without limits or barriers, nourished by nature and mysticism. An initiatory journey that has led Bekhor to seek in his works the invisible bond that unites Earth and the Divine. Thus, throughout his more than 25 years of artistic exploration, the geometric element ultimately stood out. For our artist, geometry is indeed the concept of representing the Whole, from the microcosm to the macrocosm. Bekhor sees in geometry, and particularly in the record, the plastic form of his alchemy, this ancestor of science that united magic and the study of nature. The secrecy of the world and of our existence becomes, under the gaze of Julio Bekhor, form and matter united in a vinyl circle, the first medium for storing analog sound, a tool heralding a change of era. It is also an icon of an era, of pop music, of its widespread consumption, and of its unjust but anticipated decline. The record as an object of the past, of the fatal struggle between progress and poetry. The album as a synonym for a certain nostalgia, for childhood, for youth, as well as for the first steps of the artist Bekhor in the adult world, in the artistic world...His analysis of geometry, however, focuses on the study of patterns and fundamental forms of the Universe.

Julio Bekhor reminds us how often certain designs are repeated in the creation of forms, in a perfect blend of mathematical rationality and spiritual elevation. From the circle to the polyhedron, by way of the Flower of Life (Da Vinci, always), Bekhor analyzes the interconnection of vital forms; of planes in all their dimensions, from the unitary point to repetition transformed into composition, so that under our astonished eyes we can glimpse both the notion of space and that of surface. Thus, a tension coexists in the works, that of the struggle between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional.

If vinyl reminds us of Pop Art, the Avant-garde movements are not far removed either, and we better grasp, from the pieces in the exhibition Everything is Connected, the centuries-long abandonment of Euclidean geometry in the work, a rejection that paved the way for our modernity.

The artist imbues these geometric compositions not with just any elements, but with sacred colors. Gold often contrasts with black. Geometric circles are imbued with mysticism. The quintessential religious symbols disappear, but the creative silence remains. Circles, intersections, and golden infinities murmur, uprooting us from the trivial and allowing us to experience a perception of space transformed into magic.

Julio Bekhor’s creative exploration begins with Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as the centerpiece of this homage to the essence of art, which the Renaissance paragon summarized with the words Saper Vedere (knowing how to see), intuiting the current definition of the artist, once again christened the visual artist. Yes, Julio Bekhor knows that the artist is the one who knows how to see. To see their era, the events (Kairos), and to confront them with Time (Kronos), inventing new forms and innovating new materials. Forms and Materials to express the ever-changing world that only the artist can capture. And so, Julio Bekhor’s works in the exhibition Everything is Connected remind us how essential the proximity of the artwork is in telling us that only art allows us to invent ourselves, to invent our existences.
–Ruth Bekhor