I entered

the large, main work hoisted in the centre of the space is imposing and arouses curiosity. discovering a little more about the process of its creation arouses even more interest and increases appreciation. it begins to speak and ends up by making an invitation: to observe it from all its directions. my gaze thus moves around the room.

I walk

I allow my eyes to rest freely on the works. the lines, the reinterpretations and the connections can be seen. could the central work be something like a matrix, a force that generates so many other possibilities of expression. could it be that I am witnessing a process of reinterpretation of the artist herself and her work, revisiting and reviewing her development?

what an incredible place!

works and visitors are bathed in the sunlight of a summer saturday. and, inside, a neutral atmosphere highlights and values the works. the entire structure, meticulously designed, is gradually incorporated into the artist’s production. after a while, I have the feeling that it is the works that sustain the space.

I arrive shortly after the opening. there are still few people there. and so I receive, as a gift, the company of the artist and the curator.

we walk. I learn more about all the processes, the gathering of works, the names. an amorphous sensation begins to emerge.

mother and daughters dance along the subtle threads of connection. I become emotional.

I go up the stairs. I see the studio. ah, the beauty of the details…

I see the garden at the side. I go down the stairs.

the external light begins to diminish. some internal lights are delicately turned on. the works are projected onto the floor and a new pattern appears. oh! what a pity I won’t be able to follow the changes in light until nightfall…

the feeling in my chest is still there, mysterious.

I step away for a moment, I go to the garden at the back and look at the space, trying to decipher what is happening.

I can’t decipher it. I walk a little more trying to find an answer. I talk a little more. the time has come to leave.

…

many things touched me: the works, the space, the delicate and discreet care taken in production and curation, the details. I was moved by the work in which mother and daughter were together.

but there was still a small mystery.

talking to my therapist on Monday, I reconstructed the experience. as I narrated my perceptions, something that I had not been aware of emerged in my imagination, activated by the account itself.

invisible threads

there was a delicate connection between the main work, the production resulting from it, the space and the artist.

reconstructing the experience days later, I remembered the sensation of walking through the woods and feeling spider webs on my face. this was how I felt: touched by invisible and delicate threads, imperceptible to the body. perceptible on a subtle level.

the centre of all this?

the almost archetypal shape hoisted in the middle of the room, a transparent cloak woven by incessant hands, the result of the resolute desire not to stop.

the obstinacy of continuing is at the core of the work, learning from its creator, the work decides to create its own connections, with the space and with the public

and so I was touched.

by the visible persistence of weaving the invisible

Throughout Maria Villares’ artistic production, we find an attentive eye for nature; seeds, shells, skins, found, gathered, noted and collected. The look that stops to search for these sediments joins that which constructs the work. 

Each work shows the development of a process that narrows the relationship between specific techniques (painting, ceramics, engraving or drawing), transforming the residue of nature into a basis for constructive thought. 

The sheets of paper are treated as shells that encase the foundation of the painting. 

The pigment is dragged by water over the paper, weaving transparent skins.

in the painting, the layers of paint dissolve into white veils. The colour applied to the shapes, they weave webs, organs, bones. 

in the ceramics and in the bronze, the seeds gain a territory to be fertilized, building organic forms bringing back living matter to the clay. 

The referent reappears and disappears in layers and forms that approach and move away from 

each other.

Abstraction, always accompanied by a strong relationship with matter, is born from its pictorial and formal strength.