Al otro lado. De la penumbra que nos permite ver.
Galería Isabel Hurley, Málaga, Spain
22 November – 18 January 2020
solo exhibition

The absolutization of nature, as proposed by the type of universalism introduced during the Enlightenment, manifests as an objectifying absolutization. In other words, it is affirmed not as a subject, but as an object. If idealism had not been interrupted or redirected by the course of the Enlightenment, perhaps the idea of nature as absolute would not have emerged in this way. One of the pillars of the Enlightenment is the definition of the self as absolute within nature. Once the human figure is absolutized, the same is done to nature. Not before. The self and nature were once co-belonging absolutes, but now, there is a rupture. A few charred chairs remind us of this fact. The consequences of the colonizing attempt reveal its own incapacity. A destroyed object faces a landscape. Nature has become landscape, as it has been endowed with social properties. Anthropoid attributes have been assigned to it, capable of projecting onto the human imagination an ideal of the relationship established with it. A relationship that is impossible—based on domination and domestication. Ultimately, nature makes itself heard; any human-made material production left in abandonment is absorbed by the natural realm. The chair represents the failure of humanity in its authoritarian attempt. It marks the place where we can still remain. From where we can still look toward nature and have an experience of it not biased by these interests. (…)

The virgin jungle can be conceived not only as a surrounding world —which is the sum of what is perceived and acted upon by a subject— but also as a magical world, as it can be perceived as an evocative space that inspires. Since it is unique to each subject and does not necessarily depend on perceptual experience —but rather arises from a singular inner experience— the magical event is triggered, allowing the healing of the subject to take place.

Fragment of text of Paula Ramírez Vega