Microscope sheets that inspire trees of life

[Jultxxxyes]

A new exhibition of the Complutense Art Center of Madrid collects works by 25 contemporary artists to unite research and imagination

The face of a girl on a garlic clove, a piece of grass seen upside down, a dozen huge flowers made of paper mache or the head of a unicorn with a horn of more than a meter are some of the pieces found at the Complutense Art Center in Madrid on the occasion of the Herbarios Imaginados exhibition. Between art and science, which opened this Thursday and will remain until March 31. Four rooms constitute a journey that weaves close links between the rigor of science, ecology and artistic freedom from the works of 25 national and international contemporary artists.

 

Luis Castelo and Toya Legido, curators and professors of the art, technology, image and cultural heritage research group of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), have recovered the material hidden in the cabinets of the laboratories of the faculties to bring them to light and show them with language accessible to all. “They were wonderful. You had to make all this known and remove it from that plastic bag, ”they explain. Most of this unpublished content are creations that are inspired by science and nature while others are samples of a microscope or didactic sheets of the botany classes of previous centuries that become works of art.

The first room, Poisons and Medicine, "is the link between science and magic," explains Legido. The unicorn horn welcomes you in bluish colors, sixteenth-century pharmaceutical vases, poisoned plants that give powers to witches and works such as Joan Fontcuberta's. This contemporary Catalan artist plays with the viewer: what appear to be scientific drawings of registered flowers are invented plants that never existed. "The artist seeks to break the scientific objectivity. He wants to show that it is not true because it is photography or science," says Legido. On his left, 12 vacuum bells protect dried tree leaves, tiny pieces of wood or garlic cloves on which are photographs of ancestors applied by the artist Lorena Cosba.

 

“We wanted this space to show how the concept of botany changes with travel and exploration over time,” says the teacher when she reaches the next stage. Alfonso Galván's works convey surrealism and evasion while the more recent photographs of Paula Anta reveal a nature imprisoned by the industry. "These images show how green spaces have been conquered by the urban," says a viewer. In Tropología I, the Madrid artist Andrés Pachón, 35, plays with reality and incorporates the human being again into the purity of nature.

Gardens and florilegios is the largest, most colorful and perhaps the most appealing room. The Faculty of Pharmacy of the UCM has yielded a dozen pieces that were used to teach biology in the twentieth century. They are reconstructed flowers with paper mache or jelly that measure about 40 centimeters, scattered around each corner like in a garden. Trees of life drawn by the Swedish artist Lotta Olsson rest in front of the work Eucaliptus Globulus, by the Chilean Rodrigo Arteaga, which seeks to denounce the death of nature.

“Nature is a source of inspiration. Abstract art is born from the microscope sheets, ”says Castelo. In the last room and the darkest, Science and environment, details of the leaves and curious forms of the roots of the plants stand out. The main objective of this part is to demonstrate that “nature is to be heard and learn from it by sustainably mimicking its dynamics and processes,” explains Tonia Raquejo, a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the UCM. The work Soup, by Mandy Barker, attracts the eyes. They are like pieces of flowers mixed in a black background, but, in reality, the composition is made of garbage. The movement of his figures follows an inspired flow of contaminated water to denounce consumption. Despite this clear message, the photographs of José Quintanilla represent a portal and the wheel of a car trapped between the plants and branches in the style of a spider web. His work and that of many others present at the Complutense Art Center definitely show that nature will survive us.