where art and cartography go hand in hand

It turns out that one of the books in which Juan Ramón Jiménez's poetry reaches superior levels in its peculiar vitalist mysticism is titled total station. And “total station” is also the name of a device used in surveying, a theodolite with a built-in EDM and microprocessor. It is not surprising that Núria Montclús, curator of this exhibition, took advantage of the happy coincidence to give it the title of an exhibition that brings together several approaches to cartography from artistic practice.

This is a perspective that has been extensively explored, in shows such as contemporary cartographies. drawing the thought (CaixaForum, 2012) and in books such as Graciela Speranza Portable Atlas of Latin America. Traveling art and fiction (Anagrama, 2012). And if I point out the existence of these compilations, it is not to say that the work has already been done, but rather that its scope is infinite and there is room for many points of view.

[Graciela Speranza: “Art always is a fable about time”]

Another thing is that the flight attendant doesn't make hers very clear to us, besides dazzling vagueness as if “we are faced with a set of new analytical-discursive cartographies (…) from which it is possible to explore and build new stories and imaginaries about the environment and territory that, in turn, reflect on ourselves and on forms of relationships with the environment, both collectively and individually.

As a counterbalance, I must say that the selection of works is excellent and the assembly is impeccable. And perhaps we can even find a common thread that would run through some of the works and that is a cartography that is not so much horizontal as vertical. This is what happens in the impressive pieces of Miguel Sbastidain which he photographs –but also recreates– stratigraphic configurations.

Or in the delicate pieces of carved glass Elena Lavelles, which combine geography and history. Even, to some extent, in the double contribution of Lucia Loren –a reference for this type of art in Spain–. One is the photograph of a soil cracked by drought, sutured with wool, and the other, the powerful needle with which we can fable its achievement.

[Elena Lavellés, the beauty of evil]

sculpture and installation mercedes lara they have a singular ambivalence between dense and light, between surface prominence and volume. Very suggestive is the combination of photographs of Barbara Fluxá. From him Map of a lost place it also shines with the silver of dreams. Lecuona and Hernández's great piece, without questioning its presence and beauty, is, however, the one that I can least fit into the whole.

And I would say the same about Agustín Ibarrola's work, if it weren't for the fact that the total station measures angles and distances simultaneously. A fundamental tool to approach that genuine work of Spanish Land Art that was his oma foresthere exquisitely evoked with a large photographic reproduction in front of which several bundles of painted hazelnut sticks are placed, as if we could place a forest in a vase.

That a gallery undertakes a project of these characteristics, as part of a broader commitment to introduce sustainability as a theme, but also as a criterion, it is magnificent news. We have to change our way of understanding the world, because the world has no substitute.

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