Justin Bieber, a Reborn and 'Dismembered' Jesus Christ at the Guggenheim

Justin Bieber, the Canadian singer, declared himself a born-again Christian and adorned his body with religious tattoos. American artist Paul Pfeiffer (Honolulu, 1966) then decided to transform the pop idol into a new baroque Jesus Christ. He sought out the finest sculptors from the Philippines, Mexico, and Spain to carve three figures of the singer as a modern Christ. These sculptures, now displayed dismembered, are the most striking feature of the exhibition dedicated to the influential and sought-after multidisciplinary artist at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, who does not shy away from the label of 'manipulator'.

Pfeiffer is a caustic pioneer who has spent a quarter of a century questioning the conventions of the new religion of spectacle, belonging, and identity. He questions whether we are what we see, or if we see what we are. 'I don't mind being called a manipulator; great poets are, and it all depends on the quality of the manipulation,' claims the unclassifiable conceptual creator, evoking predecessors like Andy Warhol or Marcel Duchamp.

His pieces and installations focus 'on what they don't want us to look at,' on 'how money is made by directing our attention.' He recreates football matches, basketball games, or boxing fights without players or fighters. In his videos, he beheads Michael Jackson, 'erases' Muhammad Ali from the fight of the century, Marilyn Monroe from her films, or the players from a World Cup final to question the liturgy of the new religion of spectacle.

In the series 'The Embodier' (2018-2023), Pfeiffer transforms Justin Bieber into a contemporary incarnation of the resurrected Jesus Christ. These are three faces and torsos with very realistic limbs of the pop idol who began his Christian journey by tattooing Jesus Christ on his left leg. 'I am a Christian, I believe in God and that Jesus died on a cross for my sins,' said the singer at the start of the 'Son of God' tattoo frenzy. Pfeiffer recreates him as 'a puppet' thanks to the craftsman José Antonio Navarro Arteaga, the great master of sacred sculpture who has also carved Cristiano Ronaldo, the Filipino Willy Layug, and the Mexican Ricardo Molina.

Pfeiffer ironizes about contemporary modes of devotion through the cult of celebrities. The piece by the Sevillian, carved in cedar wood and polychromed, is a realistic portrait of Bieber, 'with all the tattoos he has done to date, including the phrase 'Son of God' on his chest,' covering his modesty with Calvin Klein underwear. The pieces, which were seen complete and loved at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA), are exhibited 'dismembered', like pieces of a puzzle.

Pfeiffer is familiar with Seville's Holy Week and smiles mischievously when asked about the possibility of his Christ-Bieber and other sculptures parading like La Macarena, El Cachorro, or Jesús del Gran Poder. He also does not rule out working with global icons like Taylor Swift or Rafa Nadal.

Pfeiffer, who has never exchanged a word with Bieber, did not ask for permission for this appropriation. He almost never generates his own images. He manipulates the incessant flow that streams through the media, advertising, cinema, or television. His aim is 'to make us look where they don't want us to fix our gaze.' 'Turning away from the mainstream and keeping our attention on the fringe is almost revolutionary,' he suggests.

With his pieces, Pfeiffer deconstructs the fascination with celebrity culture to reveal 'how collective consciousness is shaped and manipulated' with images that incessantly assault us, interwoven with the history of colonialism and religion. He re-signifies icons of sports, cinema, and music, anonymizing, blurring, erasing, and taking them out of context in pieces that become ghostly, whether they are just a few centimeters or of enormous format. 'What interests me is the aura that their presence expands,' says Pfeiffer, who rescues the mass rituals of the new religion of spectacle with faceless gods and stadiums as new cathedrals.

'Son of Methodist pastors, and proselytizers around the world. He is an 'outsider' who grew up in cultures foreign to the United States, like the Filipino, and dissects the strategies and mechanisms of mass culture,' says Marta Blàvia, one of the three curators of the exhibition that brings together 30 pieces created by the artist from the 90s to today.

He acknowledges that 'reality today is of extreme uncertainty.' So much so that one might say 'truth is dead' and that 'we must shed our innocence.' Do we use images, or do they use us? is the constant question of his work.

On display until March 16, 'Prologue to the History of the Birth of Freedom' is the first retrospective in Europe on Pfeiffer's multidisciplinary work. The title is inspired by a historic milestone in American media, when filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille presented his legendary epic and religious drama 'The Ten Commandments' (1956), the most expensive film in history at the time.