Mundillo Wytai (2023)

Artists build universes; they show us perspectives of our world where curiosity and exploration can roam freely. "Mundillo Wytai" is one of these worlds, which invites us to reflect on the mystical and monstrous of the human condition.

The multidisciplinary artist Sebastián Román Soto, in his intaglio and transfer prints, opens the doors to explore the "wytai" side of the human body and anthropocentric behavior. "Wytai" is a term borrowed from the "Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" by John Koenig, which expresses how features of modern society seem absurd and grotesque, perspectives that serve as an invitation to self-reflect on our ways of living.

The artist, inspired by popular folk tales and studies of the anthropomorphic, shows us works that fuse the human being with the "otherness" of the animal. He creates a hybridity that can make us uncomfortable or bring a fascinating reading of what the modern human has become: an absurd and grotesque animal.

"Mundillo Wytai" exhibits and captivates much of its personality in its transfer drawings, a technique that the artist wants to bring back to the printing arts with the seriousness it deserves. Sebastián Román Soto gives a satirical and critical character to this technique. He develops a caricature aesthetic, which invites us to reflect on human activity.

Román, in his prints, has developed a style that pushes and bends the limits of body movement. He shows a sculptural way of thinking that brings life, dance, and torsion to his works. The artist distinguishes himself in this collection by communicating a unique iconography, which summons us to sit with the ridicule, the irony, and the fragility of human behavior and interaction.

The “mundillo” created by Sebastián Román Soto in this exhibition acquires a relational element by putting its subjects into relatable action. In his pieces, we can see ourselves reflected in the absurd, ironic, and dark areas of the human being. Nevertheless, the artist invites us to connect with the practices that unite and transform us as a society. The memory of the ancestral, the allegory to Caribbean elements, and the Afro-Puerto Rican activities in this final selection of works remind us of the venerable aspects of human culture.

As our journey inside “Mundillo Wytai" reaches its end, we must face our human behaviors and ask ourselves: What do we preserve? What do we celebrate? What should we discard? More than an answer, we seek to be inspired to reflect, interpret, and transform the "mundillo" we live in.

Artist: Sebastián Román Soto

Curator: Jayling Drowne Rodríguez

The Mundillo Wytai exhibition is organized by curator Jayling Drowne Rodriguez and the Flash Gallery Committee of the Art History Students Association of the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus.