Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara presents ¡Cuánto río allá arriba!, a solo exhibition by Spanish artist and researcher Asunción Molinos Gordo.
The project pays tribute to the thousands of uses and forms of water, through a sculptural set created by the sum of elements of water pottery. These objects, which for centuries were essential in the daily life of many different human societies, today are relics that have been left in disuse and relegated to museums due to their ethnographic value, a consequence of the generalization of running water, the mechanization of agricultural work and the rural exodus.
Asunción Molinos’ practice is polysemic, skillfully traveling through different languages. With this exhibition she appropriates the work with clay, one of mankind’s oldest activities, through which we can intuit past customs, modes of communication as well as forms of interrelation between humans and their environment.
This sculptural production condenses the research undertaken by the artist around the...equitable distribution of water and its importance in order to ensure social peace, something that all of the world’s rural communities understand as an indispensable resource. Water, considered a common good and source of life throughout the planet, and the right to its use, began trading on the Wall Street stock market in December 2020, breaking all established agreements on the right to its free access.
This group of sculptures was first presented in early 2022 at the 15th Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador, curated by Blanca de la Torre, and takes its title from a verse of the poem El cántaro roto (The Broken Pitcher) by Mexico’s Octavio Paz. Molinos Gordo uses as starting point the traditional devices employed by the inhabitants of the of the Abya Yala latitudes to transport, store and consume water. The Ecuadorian ceramic pieces, which have been reproduced by different local artisans, come from the Valdivia, Machalilla, Chorrera, Tolita, Jama Coaque, Bahía, Guangala, Milagro-Quevedo or Manteño-Huancavilca cultures.
The title of this exhibition, then, meets the land of the poet who imagined it and also meets a long ceramic tradition with the power to befriend and resonate with the keys of this exhibition.
Asunción Molinos Gordo (b. 1979, Aranda de Duero, Burgos, Spain) questions the categories that define “innovation” in mainstream discourses today, working to generate a less urban-centric way of understanding progress. Her practice is strongly influenced by disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and cultural studies.
The main focus of her work is contemporary peasantry. Her understanding of the figure of the small or medium farmer is not merely as food producer but as cultural agent, responsible for both perpetuating traditional knowledge and for generating new expertise to face today’s challenges. She has produced work reflecting on land usage, nomad architecture, farmers’ strikes, bureaucracy on territory, transformation of rural labor, biotechnology and global food trade.
Molinos Gordo won the Sharjah Biennial Prize 2015 with her project WAM (World Agriculture Museum). She took part of the XIII Havana Biennial in 2019 and the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador curated by Blanca de la Torre in 2021.
Her work has been exhibited at venues including Art Jameel (Dubai, UAE); IVAM Institut Valencia d’Art Modern (Valencia, Spain); Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK); Delfina Foundation (London, UK); ARNOLFINI (Bristol, UK); CCA (Glasgow, Escocia); The Townhouse Gallery (Cairo, EG); Darat Al Funun (Amman, JO); Tranzit (Prague, CZ); ART BASEL Miami Beach (US); Cappadox Festival (Uchisar-Turkey); The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, FI); Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico); MAZ Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Guadalajara, MX); MUSAC (León, ES); CA2M (Madrid, ES); CAB (Burgos, ES); Matadero (Madrid, ES) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, ES), among others.
Her work is part of public collections including Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation (TBA21), Vienna, Austria; PAMM Pérez Art Museum, Miami, USA; Colección CA2M Comunidad de Madrid, Spain; Colección DKV, Spain; Fundación Calosa, Irapuato, Mexico; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, US; The Khalid Shoman Collection Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordania; Aileen Getty collection.
Molinos Gordo lives and works in Madrid, Spain.
Entrada actualizada el el 28 sep de 2022
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