The Trust Martinez Guerricabeitia has opened the exhibition ‘el incendio y la palabra’ (The Fire and the Word), by the Valencian artist Mery Sales. An exhibition that goes further than just honouring the German, Jew thinker Hannah Arendt and defends her thoughts, her voice and her method through 40 works of art, most of them unpublished. The exhibition will be hold at Martínez Guerricabeitia Room of La Nau until 17 January 2016.
Hannah Arendt, German of Jewish origin, had to escape from her country in 1933 and hide in the USA. The deprivation of rights and the persecution in Germany of Jewish people, as well as her temporary imprisonment, forced her to emigrate. Journalist, teacher and political thinker, always defended pluralism, fundamental concept for freedom and equality among people. Her main works are her publication about Rahel Varnhagen, her great youth work: ‘The Origins of Totalitarism’; ‘The Human Condition’ and ‘On Revolution’, where she analyses the French and American revolution.
In this exhibition ‘El incendio y la palabra’ (The Fire and the Word), oil paintings on panel and on linen defend traditional painting as artistic language. “Absolutely current in our days, this language is reflected in the different ways to work with the same technique: as a graphic poster, the landscape or portrait, or the photographic language and the moving image through the documentary video”, states the artist.
This almost perfect assimilation between technique and tradition has led the Trust Martinez Guerricabeitia of the University of Valencia General Foundation to bet on Mery Sales’ art and to include this exhibition in its series ‘Trobades amb la Col·lecció Martinez Guerricabeitia’ (Meeting with the Collection Martínez Guerricabeitia). It is an exhibition composed of works created ‘ex profeso’ for this ‘encounter’, which collects 40 pieces , most of them unpublished and composed of several polyptych paintings, along three spaces inside the room: an index containing the introduction to the character of Hannah Arendt and the origin of her thinking, one of the most influentioal of the 20th century; with a main argument that concentrates its two key issues: violence and freedom; and the ending, which matches the conclusion. “In this latter case, the paintings talk about compromise. Arendt encourages us to think without fear, “without a banister”, that is to say, without doctrines or certainties, about the conflicts of our reality”, adds Mery Sales.
‘El incendio y la palabra’ (The Fire and the Word) is an exhibition that defends, from a pictorial view, the essence of the discourse “daring and committed” by Hannah Arendt, “woman that had the talent to understands the atrocities of her time and the courage to tell about them on stage”, explains the artist , for whom the voice of the German, Jewish thinker “transmits compromise and is essential to identify the fires in the present, from a political, restorative perspective.
Mary Sales recognises that her interest for the Hannah Arendt’s thinking comes from her researches on Gerhard Richter for her thesis ‘La Vitrina de la Memoria’ (The Display Cabinet of Memory). “Paraphrasing Walter Benjamin, both –Arendt and Richter– would be ‘fire lookouts’, each of them from their discipline. Richter with his nomadic style, many times misunderstood, commits to be material witness through painting; and Arendt, from her ‘pariah’ condition, distances from the intellectual philosophical circles and carries out a political writing which commits her with the immediate reality”, indicates.
‘El incendio y la palabra’ (The Fire and the Word), is characterised by the abundance of links that presents and which provides coherence to the content of the exhibition. It is the case of red colour, for example, which creates a constant alarm; of the water paintings, which are repeated in the different spaces of the exhibition, ah which appear as the scenography of the fire (‘Arde el Reichtag’), the duel (‘Limbos’) or the danger (‘El mal’); or of the circles, present in formats, brush-stroke and, even, in the itinerary of the exhibition, “where the beginning and the end shake hands with two enormous pictures of the sea: one of them, the sea on fire, and the other, that violent sea that invites us to look the conflict in the face and to think about it, even though it endangers us, because it is much more dangerous, according to Hannag Arendt, not to do it”, highlights Mery Sales.
A year dedicated to women, in the Trust Martínez Guerricabeitia
The exhibition has been presented in a press conference this Friday in La Nau by the director of Activities of the Trust Martínez Guerricabeitia, José Pedro Martinez, and the artist and coordinator, Mery Sales.
José Pedro Martinez has said that with ‘El fuego y la palabra’ (The Fire and the Word), the Trust Martínez Guerricabeitia closes the year 2015, dedicated “totally and globally” to women with the exhibitions ‘Itinerarios de una colección’ (Itinerary of a Collection), with works the Coca-Cola Foundation, coordinated by Lorena Martínez de Corral; ‘Mundo B’, by the Valencian artist Mavi Escamilla, winner of the 12th Bienal Martínez Guerricabeitia, the exhibit project of Mery Sales which is also centred in Hannah Arendt.
The director of Activities of the Trust has referred to the current exhibition -included in a line where the artists themselves are the coordinators of their exhibitions getting involved in the creative process from the beginning to the end, from Chema López, throughout Mavi Escamilla and, now, Mery Sales- as a composition formed by two works described as “evocative, of a wonderful artistic beauty, which, also, present a philosophical, denunciatory content” facing Nazism and all forms of totalitarian, political regimes.
Mery Sales has stated that ‘El incendio y la palabra’ (The Fire and the Word) is “the most committed exhibition” that she has done so far. And, in spite of the strong denunciation of injustice behind each painting, she has justified its kind aesthetics as follows: “For me, painting is a vehicle to get the spectator to dare to look reality in the face”. About Hannah Arendt, she has insisted that the thinker “is a vital example that helps us to improve as social beings”.
Mary Sales Biography
Mery Sales (València, 1970) is a PhD in Fine Arts and professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia. At the same time, she has had a continuous dedication to the pictorial practice that has been recognised with different awards, among the most important, the First Paul Ricard Prize. Spain (2008); Honourable Mention, XLI Salón de Otoño, Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (2010); Senyera de Pintura Metion (2005), XXXI Salón de Otoño. Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (2003); and First Prize VII Bienal Plastic Arts, Ciudad de Pamplona.
Out of her individual exhibitions, those which stand out are ‘Surge amica mea et veni’, Colegio Mayor Rector Peset, València; ‘Palabras de papel’, Castalia Iuris Foundation, Castellón; ‘Cierta claridad’, Spanish Embassy in Andorra; ‘Designios y quiebras’ , ‘Ver o Arder’ y ‘Voces’, Galería i Leonarte, Valencia; ‘Mujer elefante’, Diario Levante Club, València; ‘Esperpento’, Consorcio de Museos de la Generalitat Valenciana and also in other eight exhibition halls of the Valencian Country; ‘Sombras de Cadmio’, Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia; and ‘Cuadros con secreto’, Espai A. Lambert of Jávea, Alicante.
Out of the collective exhibitions from the last five years, the works which stand out are ‘Monstruos’, Chirivella-Soriano Foundation, València; ‘Árboles de la vida’, Botanical Garden of the Universitat de València; ‘Presencia y figura’, Centro del Carmen, Valencia, (2013); Lonja del Pescado, Alicante (2012); XLII y XLI Salón de Otoño, Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (2011- 2010); ‘Semejantes’, Social project ‘Arte sin límite. Two ways to paint a way of thinking’, Caja Rural de Torrent, València; ‘Cartografías de la creatividad. 100% valencianos’, Centro del Carmen, València; Contemporary Arts Museum, Santo Domingo; ‘Nostàlgia de futur’. Tribute to Renau, Centro del Carmen, València (2009); and Paul Ricard Prize, Centro del Carmen of València, Sevilla and París (2008).
Free guided visits
The exhibition ‘El incendio y la palarbra’ (The Fire and the Word) is complemented with a free service of guided visits (visites.guiades@uv.es – 96.386.49.22) and didactic activities (activitatspmg@uv.es – 677.027.357), open to the university community and to general public.
Through these initiatives, the visitor is invited to delve into and work on the reflection about the works and the discourse of the author, facilitating the access to contemporary art.
Catalogue
The catalogue of the exhibition will be presented in public by the Trust Martínez Guerricabeitia and the artist Mery Sales the next 2 December, in the Aula Magna of the Centre Cultural La Nau, the historical building of the Universitat de València, at 19:00.
Banco Santander and Heineken Spain S.A. collaborate in the organisation of the exhibition.
Last update: 24 de october de 2015 08:00.
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