Artist: Lorenzo Sandoval (in collaboration with Floreal Rodríguez de la Paz)
Exhibition title: Las formas que sostienen el discurso
Venue: The Liminal, Valencia, Spain
Date: February 10 – April 6, 2022
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and The Liminal, Valencia
As a result of his artistic residency at THE LIMINAL, Lorenzo Sandoval revisits the legacy of the album ‘Libro que espera su edición’ produced in 1995 by Salomé Moltó and Floreal Rodríguez de la Paz (Editorial Concreta, 2022), which speaks of the collective construction of the monument raised in the vicinity of the Albatera concentration camp (Alicante, Spain).
We enter the gallery bathed by the first light of day. Dawn (a classic symbol of libertarian processes) begins on the horizon and embodies the freedom of a narrative that has yet to be formulated. It is also a process and, therefore, speaks of an expectation. The large colored forms that now populate the gallery embrace us in this ‘produced’ place that points to the resolution of a wait; meanwhile, they suggest alternative readings of the space and new ways of inhabiting it.
The sun, which rises as we cross the entrance threshold, leads us towards a red block that reveals hidden structures. Blue arches, in the background, transport us vertically towards the the vaulted ceiling that enveloped the chores of the previous neighbors, the bakers. A yellow stripe and a stain in aged pink underline and refresh the office, where the old oven used to be. And a large turquoise rectangle, facing the sunset at the beginning, floats weightlessly over an entire aesthetic infrastructure that introduces interpretations of specific elements from the original album. In the words of the artist, also editor of ‘Libro que espera su edición’, ‘the book narrates the process by which a commission of the CNT – where Salomé and Floreal took part — collectively planned the conception and construction of the monument and of a plaque in memory of all the human beings who suffered and died for a fairer and freer world. Albatera Camp 1939-1995.’
LAS FORMAS QUE SOSTIENEN EL DISCURSO (The Forms That Support Discourse) underlines the collaboration with Floreal Rodríguez de la Paz through a series of four drawings of unusual beauty that are part of a series of sculptures that welcome us into the space—indexical creatures guiding us through a forest full of traces and memories, of remains and gestures.
Both in the main hall and in the gallery’s appendix, which houses the collection of artist books, a total of four series of lithographs occupies the space. The first one, ‘Desencadenar (Unchaining),’ is a direct reference to the Albatera monument, as well as to the process of production of the graphic artwork itself. On the other side, the modular mural ‘Albas (Las formas que sostienen el discurso n. 2),’ which is treated almost as a wallpaper, runs horizontally. In ‘Ocultamientos’ (Hidings) two parallel narratives coexist; a more gestural abstraction hides the collectivity and the machine represented in archival imagery. Finally, ‘Las formas que sostienen el discurso n. 1’ is presented as an autonomous piece and, precisely because it allows us to concentrate on all its forms, it is perhaps the work that best captures the idea of the collective monument, that which sustains forms the basis of mutual support. All the lithographic series have been developed in collaboration with Miriam Del Saz, professor, artist, and researcher at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain).
A documentary film under the album’s title: ‘Libro que espera su edición’ (Book awaiting publication), brings the exhibition to a close and takes us back to the beginning of this story, in which Salomé Moltó and Floreal Rodríguez de la Paz entrusted Lorenzo Sandoval and the sound producer Pedro André with the mission to look for a publisher to release their album: a document that dealt with historical memory in Spain very early on and also registered the construction of a monument ‘from below’.
