The Center of the Carme Culture Contemporary (CCCC) presents the first retrospective exhibition in Spain dedicated to the videographic work of the Castellón artist Pepe Beas, pioneer of video art and whose works range from the independent cinema of the late 1990s 70 to video installation or video sculpture. Known artistically as pepebeas, His figure has been closely linked to the spirit of artists like Antoni Muntadas, Antoni Padrós, Working Group, Eugenia Balcells, Antoni Miralda, Francis Torres, Nam June Paik about Wolf Vostell. Pepe Beas. The margins of reality, that can be seen until 12 of April in the Ferreres room of the CCCC, It traces the artist's career through nine large installations converted into scenographies that surround the viewer and question them about issues such as emigration., violence, identity or philosophical themes such as hermitism or the infinite seriality of life.
After his first cinematographic works, The exhibition offers a more or less chronological tour through nine installations. In the emigrant's dream (1992) Beas reflects on dehumanization and the role of the individual in an alienating world. 'The video wedding’ o ‘Illustrative gift’ (1989) introduces the visitor and envelops him in the scene of a wedding banquet in which he discovers several videos of real weddings on the table, typical of the years 70, to reflect on the relevance of gender as a social construction. According to Tena, this installation shows the influence of works such as 'Texas TV Dinner' by Antoni Miralda, where the fusion between high and low culture is evident..
In 'The Hermits’ (2002), 'Thaw and mandorla' (2011 – 2012) and 'Reality is serial like some murderers' (2007/2008) Beas begins to delve into philosophical texts. In this last installation it shows a conveyor belt, an endless tape to reflect on the infinite seriality of life in which everything repeats itself, generation after generation. The piece 'The Feast of Meat' (2007) however, explores the relationship between the carnal and the spiritual. According to Tena “Beas transforms mud into an allegory about the human being.”: “We come from mud and we will become mud.”.
In ‘The Uturunco Man’ (2015) Beas explains that upon reaching old age he is inspired by an indigenous Argentine legend to explore the concept of power and transformation. The exhibition closes as it begins, reflecting on identity, in 'Funeral lauds like sheets hanging in the sun' (2019) and about emigration in two newly created videos 'Persona and 'Land of promise' (2002-2025).
