An invitation to explore the gestation of the work of art, the creative process of artists and to reflect on their role. This is the proposal of the group exhibition The Restwhich opens this June 25 at Museo Universidad de Navarra. The show brings together works by Irma Alvarez-Laviada, Miren Doiz, Esther Gaton, Guillermo Mora and Wilfredo Prieto. The rest is about workshop leftovers, failed experiments, collateral effects..., rather than final objects intended to be consumed as products. 

This is the selected project of the 2019 class of the Museum's Master in Curatorial Studies , which is awarded to the best Master's Thesis proposal, and its curators are Marina Alonso, Pau Cassany, Sofía Enríquez and Dailey Fernández.

"We started working more than a year ago. As a team, we wanted to generate an exhibition that would open up questions about curatorship and artistic processes. For this reason, we always maintained an open dialogue with the artists in order not to impose a closed selection but to reach a joint agreement. We were very interested in working on the process and this led to the concept of 'rest'," explained Marina Alonso, from the curatorial team, accompanied by Cassany and Fernandez. The curator Sofia Enriquez is currently in Chile, where she lives. Artists Irma Alvarez-Laviada, Miren Doiz and Guillermo Mora also participated in the presentation. Esther Gatón and Wilfredo Prieto were unable to attend because they are currently in London and Havana.

FIVE PERSPECTIVES

"I present three pieces from very different moments in my work. I come from painting and there is a turning point in which I begin to look at the materials that surround artistic practice, such as the piece of packaging material. I was interested in talking about these materials that in themselves contain a certain index of negation, that speak of absence," said Alvarez-Laviada (Gijon, 1978) about his work. The exhibition includes his works Sin título (Lo necesario y lo posible VI) ( 2019) and Lo necesario y lo posible II (2015).

For his part, Doiz (Pamplona, 1980) has presented his work La forma dada ( 2019-20) and one of these murals is finished after the quarantine. "In my case, 'the rest' has a lot to do with the fragment, with the remains that we leave behind from other works and previous processes. When I did my last solo exhibition at the Moisés Pérez de Albéniz gallery, I used the image of a painting going down the sink for the façade. When it was finished, I recovered that paper and covered it with scraps on DM and wood from other works, with shapes that I cut out. And then I composed these murals.

For Mora (Madrid, 1980), the idea of 'rest' is related to "what is hidden, what is concealed, what is left behind". Thus, from this key, the artist has presented four works "based on the idea of superposition, concealment and unveiling. Each piece has its title, with two dates, like 2015 in 2019. On the one hand, it is the year of realization and, on the other, the year of drawings that hide under their layers. It works as a time capsule that functions as a container, not only symbolic, but also physical. I raise the debate as to whether the painting is more important for its surface or for what it hides behind its layers".

Gatón (Valladolid, 1988) has participated with the project Sobre el pasillo de la casa que alquilo, dibujo el interior de una ballena, in reference to the biblical episode of Jonah 1:17; 2:10 (2012-2013), his Master's Thesis. "For a year, living in a rented apartment, he was painting the inside of a whale in the hallway. The exhibition recovers that project and rescues all the remains that were generated around it. In addition to the drawing, he created a blog in which he collected photos and that corridor was visited by his friends who took photos, wrote texts... Now we are bringing it to the exhibition although it had never been conceived for that purpose," Pau Cassany explained.

In the case of Prieto (Zaza del Medio, Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, 1978), the starting point is a constant idea in his work, the questioning of language. Specifically, of two everyday expressions, 'pasarse la patata caliente' and 'cara o cruz'. "They are two pieces that seek to play with language but that were frustrated in their trajectory. In the case of Cara o cruz (2011), it was part of an exhibition that was planned for the Casa Encendida in Madrid, but due to physical problems the initial idea, that the coin would remain levitating, could not be realized," explains Dailey Fernández. In the case of Papa caliente ( 2011), it was not scientifically possible. "These projects have remained sketches, ideas, research and meetings with experts, and she still doesn't rule them out because maybe someday they can be done," the curator points out.

Both artists and curators have emphasized how enriching the dialogue between them has been, which has allowed them to explore new lines and discourses.