Promoción XVI de la Fundación Antonio Gala | Córdoba and Málaga, Spain
Six visual artists and six writers lived together for several months at the Antonio Gala Foundation Residency in Córdoba, Spain, where they were given the opportunity to work freely and share their creative experiences with each other.
“I have had the pleasure of living for eight months with six artists and six writers with whom I could exchange ideas, experiences, learn about their disciplines and learn from and about them. This scholarship has offered me the time and space necessary to develop an artistic project without any concern other than my creation and research. It has been a great experience that has allowed me to expand my training and enrich my artistic practice.”
- Sheila Rodriguez on her experience
This year the residence lasted from October 2017 to May 2018 with 12 participants, six visual artists and six writers. The projects carried out by the visual artists during these months were presented in an exhibition that opened in Cordoba from May 18th to June 15th. The same exhibition moved to Málaga on July 5 and will be up until July 26th, 2018.
There was no curator. The closest thing to a curatorial note could be the letter that writer Antonio Gala wrote to the participants:
"La vida consiste en un incesante movimiento, cuya salvaje armonía es imposible que capten los cobardes. Consiste en un paisaje siempre desconocido y opulento e inabarcable, que excede las intenciones de los pacatos y los tristes. No seáis perdedores de antemano; no empecéis por ceder antes de la batalla. Rebelaos. Estáis llamados a la felicidad más alta: ser escritores, escultores, pintores, músicos, creadores en una palabra. No os conforméis con esa felicidad en calderilla que proporciona el atenerse a las humildes normas cotidianas, ellas sí complacientes y raídas… ¿Seguridad? Nada más inseguro que aquello que logra, de repente, hacer feliz el corazón humano. Gracias a la inseguridad progresa el hombre, descubre, inventa, explora, se mezcla con lo nuevo y se renueva él mismo (aquí en la Fundación, durante vuestra estancia, lo habéis podido comprobar). Lanzaos a la empresa más ardua: ser vosotros.
¿Qué meta os propondréis, en qué sentido vais a avanzar? Da igual: el mundo es infinito; la vida es infinita; cualquier seguridad es falsa y, de momento, no hay hogar. Todavía estáis en la hora de la peregrinación. Todavía estáis en esa hora en que el camino es mejor que la posada. Y espero y deseo que vuestro paso por esta casa, que ya es la vuestra, os ayude a hacerlo más llevadero. Y os insto, con pasión y con brío, a que seáis auténticos amigos. Y os ruego que seáis sinceros siempre, con una sinceridad profunda y nada parlanchina. Y, sobre todo, que seáis fieles cada cual a sí mismo, y leales con los otros. Para no fracasar, para crecer, antes que nada, es preciso conocer nuestros límites: dónde nos acabamos y hasta dónde conducen nuestros sueños. No decirnos en esto la verdad es traicionarnos y traicionarlo todo. Y os deseo que no os defraudéis a vosotros mismos nunca; que consigáis la felicidad ahora y después. Sobre la mentira no construyen la felicidad más que los ilusos y los necios... Aspirad a la altura; sed dúctiles y francos, pero sed duros si es preciso. Y sangrad siempre que sea imprescindible: la sangre se remoza. Ojalá lleguéis a ser como yo os imagino: fuertes y realistas, soñadores y fuertes. La felicidad a la que siempre he aspirado y que os deseo es la alta y honda satisfacción de saber quiénes queremos ser, y que lo estamos siendo, o que nos aproximamos más cada día a serlo (espero que a ello os haya ayudado vuestra estancia aquí).
Y, sobre todo, no olvidéis vuestro paso por la Fundación, y por Córdoba, y recordad siempre su lema: pone me ut signaculum super coor tuum (ponme como una señalita sobre tu corazón). Hasta siempre. Tenedme con vosotros. Pero, aunque me olvidaseis, hasta siempre también."
English Translation:
‘Life consists of an incessant movement, whose wild harmony is impossible for cowards to grasp. It consists of a landscape always unknown and opulent and immeasurable, that exceeds the intentions of the pacatos and the sad ones. Do not be losers beforehand; do not start by giving up before the battle begins. Rebel. You are called to the highest happiness: to be writers, sculptors, painters, musicians, creators in a word. Do not settle for the happiness in change that provides the stick to the humble everyday norms, they are complacent and frayed … Security? Nothing more insecure than that which, suddenly, makes the human heart happy. Thanks to insecurity man progresses, discovers, invents, explores, mixes with the new and renews himself (here in the Foundation, during your stay, you have been able to prove this). Throw yourself to the most arduous company: be yourself. What goal will you propose, in what direction will you advance? It does not matter: the world is infinite; life is infinite; any security is false and, for now, there is no home. You are still at the time of pilgrimage.
You are still in that hour when the road is better than the inn. And I hope and hope that your time in this house, which is already yours, will help you to make it more bearable. And I urge you, with passion and brio, to be true friends. And I beg you to be sincere always, with a deep sincerity and nothing with talks. And, above all, that you be faithful to each other, and loyal to others. In order not to fail, to grow, first of all, we must know our limits: where we end up, and where our dreams lead. Not telling ourselves the truth in this is to betray and betray everything. And I wish you never defraud yourselves; that you experience happiness now and later. On lies, one does not build happiness more than the deluded and foolish ... aspire to the height; be ductile and frank, but be tough if necessary. And to bleed whenever it is essential: blood is rejuvenating. Hopefully you will be as I imagine you: strong and realistic, dreamers and strong. The happiness to which I have always aspired and that I wish upon you is the high and deep satisfaction of knowing who we want to be, and what we are, or what we are getting closer every day to be. Above all, do not forget your passage through the Foundation, and through Córdoba, and always remember its motto: pone me ut signaculum super coor tuum (put me as a sign on your heart). Keep me with you. Forever. Even if you forget me.’
The artists in this year's residency, and their works now on exhibition in Malaga:
Ana Daganzo
(Madrid, Spain, 1992)
‘ALCHEMICAL REACTIONS’ starts from the ancient practice of alchemy and experiments in the laboratory with elementary states of matter. The process combines analog photographic chemistry and pictorial techniques. The final images represent fictions of a magical world. Cosmological and geological inspiration through abstract shapes.
Ana works with alternative photography and installation. She explores concepts from early science, astronomy and physical theories. She studied BA Design at the UFV University of Madrid (2010-2014), Personal Project and Photography in La Maquina after winning the annual grant-context of the school (2015) and a MA Fine Arts at the UCA Canterbury (2016-2017). Her pieces have been shown internationally in different cities in Spain, Italy, France, United Kingdom and Colombia.
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Malek Sordo
(Tetouan, Morocco, 1992)
‘CON-TEXTS’: In this line of research, Malek focuses on the "textual language" and is inspired by both current and historical poetic and political discourses, trying to reflect on their aesthetic side, on one hand, and on the other, to visualize the state of confusion, meditation and intimacy that the discourses provoke. He was looking for a motivation to embark on this path, and has found it reviewing his communicative baggage and in the experience of living for two years in a different country, another culture, another language and another context.
Malek is a Moroccan multidisciplinary visual artist who graduated in Fine Arts in Tetouan, Morocco, and earned a Master Degree of production and research in Granada, Spain. Between 2012 and 2018 his works were shown in several exhibitions in Morocco, Spain and Tunisia.
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Alsira Monforte Baz
(Zamora, Spain, 1992)
‘DESVANE DE LA INFANCIA’ (Childhood attics) aims to explore the natal house and its familiar heritage through the accumulation and abandonment of objects. It works with antique, old and marginal objects, analysing their meanings which look back on a period, an essence or a person, becoming memory agents and “experience carriers”. The installation creates a “Scenography of oblivion”, aiming to awake sleeping memories and extracting subjective experiences from the domestic space.
Alsira received her Master’s in artistic production from the Technical University of Valencia, Spain, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Salamanca, Spain. She participated in exhibitions such as, the 17th Selection of J.A.C.A., ABM confecciones in Madrid (2017), VILLALART Selection in Valladolid (2017), the 10th Selection of Edi-Setó Jove 2017 through Fundació Setba in Barcelona (2017), and the Arts Libris Fair through Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona (2016).
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Sheila Rodríguez Cañestro
(Málaga, Spain, 1991)
The pictorial series ‘THE NEAR AND THE UNKNOWN’ depicts a set of enigmatic landscapes through motifs that evoke the natural. The title of this project alludes to the idea of the uncanny of Freud, which is materialized by ambiguous images where the limits between the real and the fictional are blurred, where the known gives way to the strange.
Sheila received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the University of Malaga. During her career she had study periods in the University of Salamanca through the Seneca Mobility Grant and in London through the MEC Mobility Grant. In 2014 she finished the Master’s of Research in Art and Creation at the Complutense University of Madrid. Her work has been exhibited nationally in cities such as Malaga, Madrid, Cordoba, Ourense and Salamanca, as well as internationally in Kolkata, India.
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Paula Suárez Aragón
(Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz), Spain, 1992)
‘INFECUNDA MURALLA’ (Infertile Wall): Through this pictorial project a deep search has been developed around imaginary and intangible spaces that move away from a specific time or place, projecting an uncertainty about what they suggest and show. Thus, timeless atmospheres perpetrate the daydream and mystery as a way of visual representation.
Paula has studied Engraving and Printing Techniques at Cádiz Art School and graduated in Fine Arts from University of Sevilla. She has participated in many collective exhibitions, such as ‘Deslocalizados II’ (Sevilla, 2017), ‘XI Creación Joven de Sevilla’ (2016) and ‘Algo más alegre III’ (Sevilla, 2016). Her photographic series ‘Paisajes Cerrados’ was selected and published in Género y Figura website (2016).
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Gabriel Camino
(Laredo (Cantabria), Spain, 1992)
The action painting lives in surface as if it were his territory to be able to grow, like a sensitive organism that mutates to completion. Tinted liquids flow and leave their trail receiving the impact of solid paint forming heavy scabs. Strong lines split the air radically. Lights jump from a piece to another courting a dialogue between them. The daily space is distorted to remind perception deliriums or disorientation between being and place like it may happen in dreams.
Gabriel graduated with a Bachelor’s in Art at the University of the Basque Country in 2017. In 2011 he participated in the mural project "Colors" between Cantabria and Cádiz. In 2012 he completed a graphic design course at Imval in Bilbao. In 2016 he obtained the scholarship of landscape "Course of Pensioned Painters of the Quintanar Palace" in Segovia. He participated in the collective exhibition "Cricket Soup" in Portalea, Eibar from 2015 to 2016 and in 2017 he exhibited at the General Meetings of Bizkaia (Bilbao) and at the Sala Rúas (Laredo).
To know more about the Antonio Gala Foundation: