a trip to hamburg and berlin in the beginning of the 90s marked a definite change in his work as he had the chance of meeting directly with works by jean arp, henry moore and calder which together with the impact of kandinsky watercolors, transformed in a drastic way his sculptures. he abandoned hyperrealism which was a characteristic of his work, to move to total abstraction. however, he kept his personal use of very elementary elements such as tree branches that have been pruned or very simple strings made of natural materials. this series was called the "tensions". this took a decade to complete but surprisingly it was never exhibited to the public as most of the pieces were burnt in an unfortunate accident.