Stop by the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art and delight yourself with 'Hereditas'
Recover the past from a current perspective. That is the purpose for which The Valladolid artist Gonzalo Borondo has created Hereditas, which will remain at the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art (Segovia) until September 26.
The intervention highlights the nature of the museum, conceived as a sanctuary in which preserve our heritage for future generations, as well as showing that art can bring back to life objects that have lost their function original.
'Hereditas' is an immersive experience
“I believe that what art can do is generate experiences and emotions that permeate the memory and they can somehow transform our view of the world , the architect has commented.
Said and done: Hereditas offers the viewer an immersive experience that invites you to interact with a scenario where pay tribute to nature , foundation of culture and inspiration of art and religious symbols.
“There is an intention in the exhibition to take those images that are part of an imaginary linked to the catholic and use them from a plastic point of view ; not with the intention of profaning it nor desecrate it, nor honor it just watch it and seize it as something that has an artistic value beyond what it tells us”, revealed the creator of 'Hereditas'.
Although it is not the first time that Borondo starts site-specific actions -which date back to 2017-, yes it is an unusual occasion, since he had never carried them out in a museum. The white cube , as it is called exhibition space in modern times, is annulled, to become a black cube that rescues the old uses that the building had.
“The museum is, in a way, an aseptic space, which eliminates all traces of life beyond the works. My idea was to transport the previous life. I expanded and occupying every little corner of the museum and bringing my universe, to the time, that interacted and dialogued with it and its spaces”, explains Gonzalo Borondo.
It is the first intervention of Gonzalo Borondo inside a museum
The Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art, which was originally the urban palace of Henry IV, stands on a building in which the different strata that make up the history of Segovia from the mid-15th century to the present.
After the death of the monarch, it passed into the hands of the noblest families in the city , which is why its walls bear witness to political, social and religious affairs , which have inspired the various interventions by Gonzalo Borondo in each of the museum's rooms.
The upward path of this experience is structured in four chapters or “altars”. The first three are a tribute to the natural heritage, through the plant kingdom (Herba/grass), mineral kingdom (Petra/stone) and animal kingdom (Carnis/meat); finally, the fourth chapter (ether/ether) venerate the necessary cultural field.
“The connection between art and the sacred has always interested me and, in this case, I wanted to talk about what for me is our greatest heritage: the environment and the landscape” , Gonzalo Borondo pointed out.
The experience is structured in four chapters
In each section you can see elements from the past such as sculptures, columns, pieces of plasterwork or niches that have been recovered and codified in a contemporary key by the artist.
How? Through a wide variety of media: installations, painting, projections, animation, optical illusions, sophisticated digital technologies, sound effects...
You will find installations, painting, projections, animation, optical illusions...
“The process through which I carry out these works is very important. There is a total immersion on my part in space. I can come with many preconceived ideas, but in the end they transform and constructing itself in an almost performative way. I decide, in a short time, how to turn something around with everything that place has transmitted or suggested to me”, Borondo pointed out.
And it is that the particularity of this project is not only to show finished pieces, but, together with them, the processes (models, plans, sketches...), that have led to the final work.
This exhibition is framed in the experimental project 'Seedbed of Art', promoted by the Esteban Vicente Museum in 2020 thanks to the sponsorship of the Segovia Provincial Council. This initiative aims promote the work of young artists linked to Segovia.