When the Stones Speak
Curated by Adonay Bermúdez
May 13–26, 2023
Featured artists: Hayfer Brea, Rigoberto Camacho, Teresa Correa, Joey Fauerso, Megan Harrison, Gil Rocha, Avelino Sala
I like to think that the world is made of stones.
By beginning this curatorial text with the words of Richard Long, we inevitably point to the main characteristics of this exhibition. Through this British artist, we are immersed in idyllic, petrous settings where silence and simplicity overwhelm us with their presence, savoring stone’s solidity, immutability and, especially, its primitive character. A tree is born, grows, then dies; waters flow and will never be the same—in this nod to Heraclitus—and sand, wanderlust in essence, is shifted by the winds; yet stone remains, witness to all that takes place around it.
Far from being a mere transcription of observed reality, When the Stones Speak presents new readings of landscape, whether natural or urban, beginning with a fundamental element: stone. It involves a journey to essence itself, without transformation or modification, to stone completely dispossessed of any artifice that might blur its presence. This exhibition no doubt speaks to us of the indissoluble relationship between individual and territory—in the broadest acceptance of the term—while also addressing processes of human transformation, migratory flux and history.
When the Stones Speak addresses the construction/destruction binomial, along with concepts of time and space. Through installation practice, video performance, painting, collage and sculpture, When the Stones Speak captivates us with an amalgam of artistic proposals that seek to raise citizen awareness, helping us understand how the power to rethink the model of the territory we wish to inhabit is in our hands. Through the polyhedric nature of stone, a series of artists proclaim that another world is possible, one that is kinder and fairer, more inclusive and more feminist.