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“The bigger something is the more space it fills, not the more space it takes up." maintains Javier Calleja. Javier Calleja does not like talking about his work; good magicians never explain their tricks. There is a certain magic that does exist, but it is short-lived – it lasts as long as the brain takes to react and rationalise. The short space of time between the moment the magician performs the trick and the moment the rational process has begun, is when the magic actually takes place. In order to understand Javier’s work, one simply has to imagine that we make up part of his world; that we are as big or as little (however one wants to see it) as his paintings. In this way we can peer out from the depths where the spaces multiply, where the small things spin in huge circles to discover and learn, where the biggest element is not the world in which we live, but the space that surrounds us. November 2009