José Dávila's Circular Narratives and Art as a Line of Continuation

The Acapulco chair is one of the most renowned pieces of Mexican design worldwide. Rooted in vernacular tradition, this iconic object gained international fame in the 1950s, becoming a true symbol of the Mexican dolce vita. Its recognition—and even its name—is closely tied to the glamorous world of Hollywood at the time. During those years, film industry stars frequently visited Acapulco, the coastal paradise of Mexico, making the chair a staple of luxurious seaside retreats.

Despite its widespread fame, the Acapulco chair remains an anonymous creation. As a piece of popular design, it has never been officially attributed to a specific designer, and no one has claimed its authorship. Moreover, there is a notable scarcity of photographic evidence from the 1950s and 1960s documenting the chair's early use. This absence adds to its mystique and raises intriguing questions about authorship and originality, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction within the fields of art and design.

Fun in Acapulco. British Quad Movie Poster - Starring Elvis Presley, 1963

These very themes are central to A Secret Wish (2024), a work by artist José Dávila, presented as part of his solo exhibition that opened on March 15, 2025, at Galerie Almine Rech in Rue de Turenne, Paris. In A Secret Wish, Dávila places the Acapulco chair at the heart of a conceptual investigation into authorship, ambiguity, desire, and repetition. His approach deconstructs conventional understandings of design, returning to the essence of the projectual line itself. The object is reduced to its basic structure—barely recognizable—multiplied, and mounted atop a metal structural element that functions as a precarious pedestal. In doing so, Dávila challenges the boundaries between stability and instability, stillness and movement, uniqueness and seriality. The artist is particularly intrigued by the absence of a clear origin for this emblematic object of Mexican design, using it as a starting point to question broader notions of authorship, reproducibility, and the cultural construction of meaning.

Jose DávilaHalf Empty, Half Full | Mar 15 — Apr 19, 2025 | installation view, Almine Rech Paris, Turenne

Moreover, the multiple structures of the Acapulco chairs, stacked within one another, form a geometric composition—a perfect circle. This circularity, Dávila suggests, mirrors the cyclical nature of art history itself. "I think that the history of art, more than a series of absolute beginnings, is a line of continuation," he remarks. By repeating and layering these chairs, he transforms them into a conceptual statement about seriality, authorship, and the reinterpretation of objects over time.

The theme of circularity extends into another series of works in the exhibition, particularly the paintings from The Fact of Constantly Returning to the Same Point or Situation (2024). These paintings depict a succession of circles—some interrupted, others superimposed—evoking a sense of recurrence and incompleteness. Their industrial aesthetic, reminiscent of mechanically reproduced forms, reinforces Dávila’s interest in seriality and repetition. Much like his exploration of the Acapulco chair, these works challenge the viewer to reconsider the relationship between uniqueness and mass production, raising questions about the intersection of art, design, and material culture.

Jose Dávila, The fact of constantly returning to the same point or situation, 2024. Silkscreen print and vinyl paint on loomstate linen (210 x 170 x 6cm) @ Almine Rech Turenne

This approach is deeply rooted in Dávila’s broader artistic practice. With a background in architecture, he has long viewed construction sites as the perfect environments to appreciate sculpture. "It is in these transitional spaces that the notion of balance manifests most clearly," he states. He describes these sites as spaces of "enlarging possibilities" (élargissement du registre des possibilités), where structures exist in a liminal state, embodying both stability and transformation.

Beyond A Secret Wish, Dávila’s exhibition at Almine Rech includes a series of sculptural works that further develop his exploration of balance, weight, and materiality. In works like Joint Effort, he creates a state of palpable tension by juxtaposing heavy materials in seemingly impossible equilibrium, pushing the limits of gravitational forces. Meanwhile, Silent Balance embodies a more meditative quality, resembling a form of Zen-like contemplation, where the act of balancing becomes a metaphor for stillness and concentration.

Jose Dávila, Joint Effort, 2024. Concrete, metal, boulders, volcanic rock, one way mirror, and strap (185 x 340 x 376cm)@ Almine Rech Turenne

His signature assemblages of stone, glass, and metal engage in a precarious interplay of tension and gravity, appearing simultaneously fragile and structurally sound. These sculptures, like his reimagining of the Acapulco chair, interrogate the delicate equilibrium between physical stability and conceptual fragility. Through these works, Dávila continues his ongoing dialogue between art, architecture, and design, reinforcing a perpetual search for harmony between opposing forces: force and fragility, imbalance and equilibrium, stability and precariousness. His artistic practice suggests that balance—whether in art, history, or material structures—is never static but rather an ongoing negotiation, a continuous reconfiguration of form, meaning, and perception.