The Academia Hall at La Nau Cultural Centre has opened the exhibition 'CAMPUS. University architecture in contemporary painting', which presents the view of 14 artists on the buildings of the University of Valencia. The exhibition was presented by Ester Alba, vice-rector for Culture and Society, and the curators of the initiative, Juan Cuéllar and Roberto Mollá.
The complex of buildings of the University of Valencia is an important urban and artistic heritage. It has played an active part in the history of the city, in its urban planning and in the introduction of new architectural styles. Now, 14 artists have turned this heritage into the object of pictorial attention: the faculties, libraries, greenhouses or halls of residence have been, during the process of creating the works, a material to which shape has been given. A form which, like that of the architecture that makes up the campuses, has ultimately turned out to be heterogeneous and diverse, both in terms of the poetics and the techniques employed.
The participating artists are Lorena Amorós, Dis Berlin, Juan Cuéllar, Paco De la Torre, Carlos García-Alix, Elena Goñi, Jorge Tarazona, Joël Mestre, Roberto Mollá, Pamen Pereira, Paco Pomet, Señor Cifrián, Teresa Tomás and Nelo Vinuesa.
In the words of the rector, Mavi Mestre, "architecture and painting are entangled in a never-ending conversation. Each is the object of constant reflection for the other. And painting, questioned in this case about the architectural heritage of the University of Valencia, analyses, cuts up and reconstructs the architectures of the campus with a new volumetry, proposing fourteen crossed images that alternate reality, abstraction, symbolism, memory or narration, fourteen conjectures that suggest a different framing of the field".
In the words of the rector, Mavi Mestre, "architecture and painting are entangled in a never-ending conversation. Each is the object of constant reflection for the other. And painting, questioned in this case about the architectural heritage of the University of Valencia, analyses, cuts up and reconstructs the architectures of the campus with a new volumetry, proposing fourteen crossed images that alternate reality, abstraction, symbolism, memory or narration, fourteen conjectures that suggest a different framing of the field".
The curators, Juan Cuéllar and Roberto Mollá, indicate that in the works, visions as distant as those of Pamen Pereira or Carlos García-Alix coexist, "because Campus does not obey a fixed visual code but brings together the work of artists who have worked, frequently and throughout their careers, driven by a certain idea of architecture". "Just as we have seen Moreno Barberá's building grow in the photographs in the Historical Archive, we have also seen how these painted university architectures were taking shape". And they recall that Campus has been, during its planning and development, "a living and mutant material of which it was not possible to have a prior idea separate from its own evolution". "Architecture and painting struggle between bones and skin, between structure and surface. Also between form and content. A constant tension on which this exhibition adds fourteen new points of pressure", the curators point out.
The exhibition will be open at La Nau's Academy Hall until 3 September, from Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm and 4 pm to 8 pm. Sundays and public holidays, from 10 am to 2 pm.
