Cristina Mejías¿s work follows a kind of circular motion. Like a spider¿s web, it resists clear hierarchies between parts. But unlike the uniformity of a web, her practice constantly opens clearings¿like in a forest¿inviting moments of pause before the wandering continues. This exhibition makes use of the layout of the C3A's galleries to give form to that circular, kaleidoscopic process. The notion of a ¿forest clearing,¿ borrowed from philosopher María Zambrano, allows us to consider these rooms as sites of illumination. Knowing by ear would be the kind of knowledge that best suits such discontinuity. Wandering itself becomes a core aesthetic strategy: one must ¿move from clearing to clearing, from center to center, without any of them being diminished or contradicted.¿

Throughout this process, other images have also helped shape this landscape: the songs of the legendary flamenco singer El Polinario, who was said to tune his guitar by the sound of water trickling from a small fountain; the knowledge of the nymphs; or the mythic musical duel between Marsyas and Apollo. These images speak of an art that listens to what is usually silenced by the rituals of everyday life¿like a forest clearing does. The two installations that Cristina Mejías presents here¿Silent Singers (produced specifically for this exhibition and shown in the adjacent room) and Wandering Apprentices (which also gives its title to the artist¿s previous solo show at the Patio Herreriano and is now exhibited in this first gallery)¿follow the path of artistic processes that not only do, but undo themselves continuously. In their ebb and flow, where forms are erased as quickly as they emerge, they weave a kind of illumination that allows us to hear that "silent music."

Claudia Rodríguez-Ponga

CRISTINA MEJÍAS (Jerez de la Frontera, 1986)

Visual artist with a Fine Arts degree from Madrid and the NCAD in Dublin. She has developed her practice in Berlin and Madrid, where she completed a Master¿s in Art Research and Creation at the Complutense University. She has held solo exhibitions at institutions such as Museo Patio Herreriano, RoyalMount (Canada), Centro de Arte Párraga, Blueproject Foundation, and MACZUL (Venezuela), and has participated in group shows at La Casa Encendida, CAAC, Centre del Carme, Krinzinger Schottenfeld (Vienna), and SCAN Projects (London). Her recognitions include the Illy ARCO Award, Fundación ARCO Prize 2023, and Generación 2020. She has participated in residencies at ArtWorks (Porto), Matadero Madrid, Tabakalera, and C3A, among others. Her work is included in collections such as Fundación ARCO, CA2M, RoyalMount Canada, and Museo Patio Herreriano.

· DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE

· DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE  

· IMAGES FROM THE EXHIBITION