On 21 September 2022, inspired by the actions taken in protection of the Ganges River in India, the Whanganui in New Zealand and the Atrato in Colombia, the Spanish Senate approved a new law granting personhood status to the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia. As such, it has become the first European ecosystem to be recognized as a legal “person”, which means it must be protected and preserved by the government and the general population. This recent event, both necessary and encouraging, serves as a useful starting point to imagine how, even via politics, other places can be explored – places where humankind can finally understand that we live in a connected system in which rivers also have souls and in which everything, not only our bodies, matters.
As if they had a Soul emerges out of this idea, with three artists who build universes in which bodies expand and become...impregnated with the matter that surrounds them, becoming parts of a soulful whole with a creative power that never ceases to manifest itself. Julia Creuheras creates living artifacts, kinetic entities that look upon the conceptualisation of the body (especially the female body) to rethink the ways in which it has been codified and turned into a spiritless subject, an automaton that only reacts to external desires. Sahatsa Jauregi’s work navigates the symbolism of the objects that live with us and that build our identity to explore the humanity that we transfer onto them. From this strategic point, she constructs sculptures with sensual taxonomies that question our processes to create collective imaginaries and shared identities. Patricia Domínguez traces work relationships, affections, and the emancipation between living species in an increasingly corporate cosmos, through experimental research that combines ethnobotany, healing practices, and the commodification of wellness. Her videos, sculptures and watercolours build worlds that understand the connection between bodies from a very particular mystique, in which humans, plants, animals and things dialogue horizontally to imagine elastic and magical worlds.
The constellation of works gathered in As if they had a Soul tries to reflect on these ecosystems with personhood to reconsider our place within a collective and spiritual whole. This way, the exhibition invites various entities that we previously considered mute, or simply not worth listening to, to take part in the conversation, thus creating an open discussion full of new and elastic meanings that we can unite and weave to narrate a different present.
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Patricia Domínguez (Chile, 1984)
She holds an MFA in Studio Art from Hunter College, New York. She has a BA in Art from PUC, Chile, and studied Botanical and Natural Science Illustration at the New York Botanical Garden.
She has had solo exhibitions at New Museum (New York), WAMx (Finland), CentroCentro (Madrid), YAP MoMA PS1 + Constructo (Santiago), Yeh Art Gallery (New York), Gasworks (London), Twin Gallery (Madrid), Sala CCU (Santiago), Galería Patricia Ready (Santiago), Pizzuti Museum (Ohio) and ARCO Madrid. She has been chosen as artist in residence at ALMA (Chile), CERN (Switzerland), Gasworks (London), Meet Factory (Prague), Centro Matadero (Madrid), AIM Bronx Museum (NY), R.A.T. (Mexico), FLORA ars + natura (Bogota), The Institute of Critical Zoologists (Singapore), Sandarbh Residency (Partapur, India), and American Museum of Natural History (New York). She has received the Botín Foundation Visual Arts Grant, the CERN+ Symmetry Grant, the AMA-Gasworks Grant, the Media Art Award from Fundación Telefónica Venezuela 2014, the 3rd Norberto Griffa Award 2014 and the 2nd CCU Grant Award 2015, among others.
Julia Creuheras (Barcelona, 1995)
She holds an BA in Fine Arts from Camberwell College of Arts, London, and an MA in Computational Arts from Goldsmiths, London. Her work has been exhibited at Creixent Apareix (Barcelona), Intersticio (Madrid), Tecla Sala (Hospitalet de Llobregat), St. James Church (London), APT Gallery (London), Copeland Gallery (London) and Tate Modern (London)
Sahatsa Jauregi (Itaparica, 1984)
She has a degree in Fine Arts from EHU-UPV, Bilbao and is currently a member of Okela, an arts association in Bilbao. Her work has been exhibited at Artiatx (Bilbao), Halfhouse (Barcelona), Carreras Múgica (Bilbao), Tabakalera (Donostia/San Sebastián), Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao) and Fran Reus Gallery (Palma de Mallorca). She has won several awards, including Gure Artea 2019, Ertibil- Bizkaia 2017 and Programa de Artistas Noveles de Gipuzkoa 2013. She has been chosen as artist in residence at Tabakalera (Donostia), Halfhouse (Barcelona), Fundación Bilbaoarte, Consonni (Bilbao) and Pacific Film Archieven (Berkeley, CA). Her work is part of the Atrium Collection and the Kutxa Foundation.
Entrada actualizada el el 08 mar de 2023
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