June Crespo’s sculptural assemblages, which the artist understands as communicating vessels, resonate within our bodies. At times delicate, at others forceful, they always emanate a vital, living quality. Listen to the artist talk about her inspirations and working process.

This episode was recorded on 12 September 2025, the day after the opening of the exhibition:

June Crespo

Danzante

12.9. – 16.11.2025

Most of the works in the exhibition Danzante take their formal vocabulary from the iris and the strelitzia (bird of paradise). Yet the artist is not concerned with representing these plants. Instead of proposing a classificatory symbolic order, they serve as starting points for a deeper engagement with materiality and the evocative potential of surfaces and textures, which take precedence over the pictorial dimension. Crespo treats her materials as agents, understanding herself an assistant to her work rather than an authority figure. In this way, she offers us a visceral experience – an encounter with objects that touch us in our corporeality and heighten our awareness of our own presence and its fragmented condition. More

June Crespo (Pamplona1982) lives and works in Bilbao. Obtained her BFA from the Basque Country university (Bilbao) in 2005 and completed a two years residency at De Ateliers (Amsterdam) in 2017. Her solo shows include: Solar (2025), at Ehrhardt Flórez gallery, Madrid. Their weft, the grass (2024) at 1646.nl, The Hague; Vascular (2024) at Guggenheim Bilbao Museum; they saw their house turn into fields (2023) at CA2M, Madrid; Acts of Pulse (2022) at P420, Bologna; entre alguien y algo (2022) at CarrerasMugica, Bilbao; Am I an Object (2021) PA///KT (Amsterdam); Helmets (2020) Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Recently her work has also been shown in group such as: L´écorce (2023) at CRAC-Alsace; The Milk of Dreams (2022) at Venice Biennale; Fata Morgana (2022) Jeu de Paume (Paris) and The point of Sculpture (2021) at Fundación Miró (Barcelona).

Since 2008, Bettina Spörr is a curator at the Secession, where she engages in close collaboration with artists to conceptualise and realise exhibitions that explore the profound impact of contemporary art on society. Throughout her career, she has worked with numerous artists on solo exhibitions and, in 2010, curated the group show where do we go from here? at the Secession.

Secession Podcast: Artists features artists exhibiting at the Secession.

The Dorotheum is the exclusive sponsor of the Secession Podcast.

Programmed by the board of the Secession.

Jingle: Hui Ye with an excerpt from Combat of dreams for string quartet and audio feed (2016, Christine Lavant Quartett) by Alexander J. Eberhard

Audio Editor: Paul Macheck

Executive Producer: Bettina Spörr