VAT. Guillem de Castro, 118
The IVAM continues with its policy of rescuing from ostracism women artists who have not received the attention they deserve. He did it with Ángeles Marco —also a sculptor—, in 2018, and this year of celebrating the thirtieth anniversary it does the same with the Barcelona Susana Solano, one of the protagonists of the renewal of Spanish sculpture of the years 70 y 80, dominada until then by men. Yes, He was awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1988, but since the Museum d’Art contemporary from Barcelona (Macbeh) will dedicate an exhibition to him in 1999, There has been no retrospective that brings together and highlights the last twenty years of the artist's work.. That's what the IVAM has come to, to undertake an “act of historical justice” con “one of the best artists in this country”, in the words of the museum director, Jose Miguel Cortes. Although Solano does not feel at all uncomfortable on the margins: “marginality interests me. “I feed on being invisible and forgotten”, stated at the press conference to present the exhibition.
Susana Solano. Acta It is organized according to the skin criteria, the textures of the works, more than the date of completion. They are very varied because the materials and techniques (from the industrial world) those Solano has worked with are: madera (Untitled, 1977), steel (Foam II), aluminum (A Philip A taste III), metal screen (I want to give you a word), ceramics (A Smithson knob. 1), plaster (Pedris II) and more organic materials such as wicker, with which he has covered objects and structures with lattices (Bura I, III, IV). Even catifas with African prints (Elmina and On top of a rug #2) that reflect his admiration for the neighboring continent, to the one who has traveled again and again. It's more, one of his sculptures, floor, is called Africa and is made up of squares and rectangles that delimit each other creating borders with drawing lines., like those of colonized Africa. They are hard and abstract works made with construction materials where everything accessory has been eliminated to maintain the enigma and allow the viewer to construct their own discourse.. If you go up to the second floor you can see the same works from a bird's eye view and get a new perspective, but to get there you must step other work (Yeah, Yeah, trample), the two-color steel tiled floor that gives access to the stairs.
Although models are usually considered minor objects, in this exhibition they have a capital weight, in fact, They have been placed in the largest area of the room. It is a retrospective within a retrospective about some of the public work projects that have been commissioned from the artist in recent years for different spaces in Leganés., Tokio, France, Dublin or Portugal. Before we get there, you will find small sculptures (Fragments) made with metal mesh —very characteristic of the author— and ceramic tiles that are reminiscent of the coating of swimming pools. Son parts what, as so many others from the tour, They have the added value of not havingis never been exhibited before. The IVAM pays homage to a sculptor who, after forty years of career, continues to create great workurgency and topicality, and enormous evocative power. S.M.
