Mural of absence

Carcaixent, 2009

Drawing in pencil and gouache on tissue paper, mounted on wood panels
Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Germany
Project: Vom Mittelmeer, mit Schuppen aus Seide
400 x 450 x 3 cm.
Installation at Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Germany
1:1 scale reproduction of the floor of my studio that I can now move anywhere in the world.

My original studio is at number 20 Amalia Bosarte Street, in the Valencian town of Carcaixent. It is an Art Nouveau-style house. Various generations of my family lived there. It is home to objects that remind us of the lives of Spanish people who lived through the war, the post-war period, and the arrival of democracy. It is full of memories and epic stories. Stories about the countryside, the army, the dictatorship, the parties, and the family meals. In one of the rooms upstairs, in “la habitación del picú” (the record player room), I had my first studio. There are hydraulic tiles on the floor, the window frames are made of walnut wood, and the ceilings are high. The woodworm has already started to eat away at some of the pieces of furniture.

In 2009, when my grandmother died, I felt as if the house had come to an end, so I decided to reproduce the floor of this room by hand. I drew it on a 1:1 scale on tissue paper and 20 x 20 cm wooden frames. It is a perfect puzzle. It is a piece that takes precedence over the memory and it will make increasingly more sense over the years. One day, when the house no longer stands, it will talk about it, about the family that no longer lives there, and also about me. But it will also talk about all those abandoned houses in the villages, which are left to crumble and fall, of the heritage that we lose every day. This large drawing defines a private, unique place, which can be moved anywhere. It is a transportable space, a sacred place. The viewer sees it from the outside, being aware of its absence. It is a floor sculpture, without a pedestal.