A life-size bronze sculpture reproducing the skull of a Triceratops, one of whose horns is a representation of the Venus of Lespugue, is installed on a white pedestal in the Jura meadow (fig. 1). Adrián Villar Rojas created Untitled (From the Series of the Language of the Enemy) at the invitation of Audemars Piguet Contemporary—the brand’s program supporting artistic research and creation—and the Aspen Art Museum.
This sculpture by Adrián Villar Rojas is the first work commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary to be exhibited in the Vallée de Joux, while the program has, since its creation in 2012, collaborated with more than twenty-seven artists across seventy venues. It is presented here at the close of the year celebrating Audemars Piguet’s 150th anniversary. The work will join the Aspen Art Museum in the summer of 2026, where it will be included in a major solo exhibition devoted to Adrián Villar Rojas’s oeuvre.
Reinventing Prehistory
The artist has combined two major symbols of Prehistory into a single chimera: a dinosaur over 65 million years old and one of the earliest known female representations, dating back some 27,000 years. This prehistoric short-circuit can be read as an encounter between nature and culture. It also invites multiple perspectives, as suggested by the reproduction of the Venus of Lespugue (fig. 2).
A masterpiece of the Paleolithic preserved at the Natural History Museum in Paris, the Venus is an imaginary body without a face, sculpted from mammoth ivory, with full breasts, buttocks, and thighs, while the head and feet are small. It can be read in all directions: if inverted, its feet become its head and its head its feet. The parallel grooves, perhaps representing a loincloth beneath the buttocks, merge in Adrián Villar Rojas’s work with the rugged surface of the great reptile’s skull, transforming into hair cascading down its back. Its overall silhouette also evokes a phallic form, making it a masculine symbol. The complex conceptual thought, spirit, and even the humor of distant ancestors can thus be glimpsed through this enigmatic figurine.
Speculative History
In his work, Adrián Villar Rojas has for many years explored the origins of the human conception of systems of thought and symbols. His reflections draw on current research in paleoanthropology and genetics, as well as insights from speculative history. What if Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had collaborated to create meaning, he imagines. He envisions the coexistence of the two species, the exchanges that occurred between them, the hybridization they experienced, and the transmission of a shared heritage across time.
The Genesis of a Reptile
The head of the great reptile harmoniously engages with the Jurassic limestone landscape and its Jurassic dimension. Adrián Villar Rojas’s sculpture echoes human inventiveness and the precision of gesture characteristic of watchmaking in the Vallée de Joux. The artist and his team worked for three months to create it. They first digitally modeled the Triceratops skull, reproducing every microfracture, cavity, and relief to faithfully capture the geological complexity of a natural fossil (fig. 3).
From this digital entity, they created clay molds into which molten bronze was poured. The visible sutures joining parts of the sculpture cast separately reveal the object’s fabrication. Likewise, the golden highlights across the piece underscore its nature as an artefact.
In front of the manufacture, the only museographic element intended by the artist is a rectangular white pedestal that illuminates the sculpture at night. Adrián Villar Rojas emphasizes the autonomy of his creation in this natural setting. He also seeks to encourage direct engagement with viewers by excluding an explanatory plaque that might bias perception.
A Pop-Rock Dimension
A pop-rock enthusiast, Adrián Villar Rojas explains that he enjoys titles with strong musicality, “that excite him and create a sense of arrival,” much like a name announcing a birth. He adds: “In The Language of the Enemy, the ‘enemy’ resides – and reproduces – through language. […] It is through language that we name and divide, and it is within language that the memory of conflict endures.”
During the presentation of the work to the press on November 12 at the Hôtel des Horlogers in Le Brassus, the artist warmly thanked Audrey Teichmann, curator at Audemars Piguet Contemporary, and Claude Adjil, curator at large at the Aspen Art Museum, both co-commissioners of the work. He praised the reception they gave to his proposals and their unwavering support throughout his creative process.
