We see what we see
and to see is to change

Adrienne Rich, Galaxias de mujeres

Marina Núñez’s work is a testimony to the vital synergy existing between we women and nature. It is a witness to the evolution of the bonds that we establish with our environment. Accepting the change, the limits between form and content become blurred and entangled, giving rise to new signifiers, transforming us on the journey. We are transported to a new referential space where the bionic acquires a new demeanour.

In this exhibition the body becomes the star -albeit invisible- performer. A body that silently but constantly appears and disappears. A body whose presence is inherently part of the space occupied resignifies and extends itself. And in this way, Núñez invites us into her own cosmological universe: into a reality determined by the interactions of form and matter. A reality where the action itself, the movement, establishes the being that inhabits it or where the footmark exceeds the gesture and remains in the (un)occupied space.

In Historia natural biology spreads and flows through technology. Using digital tools such as laser engraving on glass Marina reflects on the limit between nature and identity. Taking a rectangular prism as a base, she uses laser to engrave a silhouette that in its turn is composed of a series of microscopic particles.

The three feminine silhouettes of Historia natural come to the foreground in the exhibition The figures stand tall, stretching lightly upwards while the position of their shoulders shows a self-confidence and aplomb that defies the silence imposed by the system. The gesture challenges the four walls and they become one with their surroundings.

A duality is also present in the series Envidias. The synergies between the human being and their surroundings is re-created using lacquered brass to show four examples of nature (the zinnia, the goji berry, a walnut branch and a birch branch), presenting us with four unique and parallel dialogues. In this series the gentle gesture of a hand reaching for the branch or flower remind us of our fleeting and fragile relationship with our environment.

In the series Marejada this fragility becomes strength in a combination using digital imaging and gold leaf. A human silhouette strung in a sea of filaments and textures fills the centre of the image. Far from limiting its movement, the centre figure retrieves the impulse present in the Historia natural series. Faced with the immobility of the setting the action of the subject breaches the limits imposed. The action becomes gesture and the body becomes the subject.

This dialogue woven between space and subjectivity crumbles and is questioned in Cuadros de Flores. Painting in oils on canvas Marina shows us a burgeoning flora that is devouring us. Prioritizing nature over the human element, Cuadros de flores warns, like some post-apocalyptic message, of the gradual disappearance of human beings.

This critical reflexion returns in the series Desvanecimiento. This time audiovisual language allows the author to reflect on the limits between identity and space. The video, with music by Luis de la Torre, shows us different landscapes in which we can glimpse something that might be a face, sculpted by the wind. In its struggle to survive, the face finally disintegrates, leaving only its cloth covering that then disappears with it.

Continuing in the same vein as Cuadros de flores, in Desvanecimiento, Marina opts for reformulating the limits between content and the habitat that allows it to exist. In its final disintegration the spectator can sense a melancholy twist where the human species appears to be proceeding towards its own extinction. Turning the handle that will cause it to evaporate, the face brings about its own disappearance.

Broadly speaking we can say that the works of this exhibition lead us to a collective consideration on fragility, evanescence and the minimum expression. Superimposing itself on the passivity, the body adopts a translucent and permanent identity. Occupying the space it has been denied, it retrieves a voice and breaks the silence imposed by the dominant system. Assuming invisibility as their own, the bodies transcend place and time. Enduring. Bringing us into question.

Ana Quiroga

Translated by Diana Mathieson Roth