The memory avant garde, 2019
Plastic conglomerate, emergency blanket, acrylic and lacquer on cloth.
OIASSO Museum and
Ermita Santa Elena, Irún, ES
Photo credits: Mariano Arias
As a visual contrapunto, The Memory Avant Garde represents different times that coexist in the same space. In the hermitage of Santa Elena in Irún, North Spain the remains of a Roman necropolis of the first century and a Christian medieval temple are visible. This artistic installation is a leap in time to visualise an aesthetic characteristic of our times represented through a contemporary ruin that is showed at the same space as the ruins of our romanic cultural heritage.
A painting-sculpture in the shape of a Europe-flag-blue column is shown suspended in the air, without a base or capital, without stability and without holding anything. Painted fragments represent the sea, signs of prohibition, lifebuoys, confetti, a piece of a metal fence and glitter.
On the ground, next to the necropolis rests appears a conglomerate of plastic and resins that form a new material, a kind of plastic-granite that makes us think of the unnatural resources that future generations of the earth will obtain.
We can also see something that shines, something golden and silver with a stone shape that nevertheless has nothing of gold and silver. They are the remains of rescue blankets that will one day be found on a road heading north, near the remains of the ancient Roman road of Oiasso.
Other times, other roads, the same place.
To the ruins of our past, the ruins of our present are together in this installation as if it were a need to start a new era.
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