A tactile path through the void. "Visita guiada / Guided Visit", by Elena Alonso in Matadero
04/03/2017.
[MAD] Spain 10.02 > 30.07.2017
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
This site-specific project, titled Visita Guiada (Guided Visit) by Elena Alonso (Madrid, 1981), is a newly commissioned work installed in the cold storage of a former slaughterhouse in Matadero, Madrid. That she has so successfully translated her personal language, her profound sense of intimacy, into such an overwhelming and complex scenario is stunning.
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Detail. Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
Elena Alonso, Visita Guiada (Guided Visit), 2017, copper wire, wood, cement, cork, plaster, paint, dimensions variable. Installation view. 2017, Alambre de cobre, madera, cemento, corcho, yeso, pintura, dimensiones variables. Photograph © Paco Gómez / Matadero Madrid. Image courtesy of Matadero Madrid
After successive visits to the cold storage of a former slaughterhouse, now an exhibition room, Elena Alonso began to look at all the visual information that had been reflected in walls and ceilings. What most caught his attention were a series of holes scattered on the deck of the side aisles, closed in the last renovation.
The intervention proposes a tour of the room using a handrail as a guide. A line drawn in the plane like a drawing, which on this occasion takes a sculptural form. Its elaboration with different materials, such as wood, cement, cork, painted plaster or copper, demonstrates the artist's interest in craftsmanship and design, and offer the visitor the delight in sight and touch of the materials worked.
The intervention proposes a tour of the room using a handrail as a guide. A line drawn in the plane like a drawing, which on this occasion takes a sculptural form. Its elaboration with different materials, such as wood, cement, cork, painted plaster or copper, demonstrates the artist's interest in craftsmanship and design, and offer the visitor the delight in sight and touch of the materials worked.
In the penumbra of the room we find this particular guide that leads us to discover a new perspective of space. The holes have been reopened, through them the light enters and another upper gallery, hidden before the visitor's gaze, is glimpsed.
In this artistic intervention we find a set of contrasts, impediments and possibilities. In a way, remember the visitable caves where the tour shows us the particular geomorphology that retains in its previously static environment. In this case, the careful elaboration of the handrail contrasts with the brutality of the space.
The handrail is in turn a guide and a barrier, a line that draws and adorns the architecture of the room. A piece that we can see and touch, and that leads us to discover an unexpected place over our heads, but that we can only catch a glimpse from a distance.
More information
Venue
Room: Abierto x Obras. Matadero Madrid. Plaza de Legazpi, 8. Madrid. Spain
Dates
From February 10th, 2017 to July 30th, 2017
Elena Alonso
Elena Alonso (Madrid, 1981). Graduated with a degree in Fine Art from the Complutense University of Madrid or UCM (2006). While still a student, she received grants that permitted her to round out her education at the Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm, 2004) and the University of Vigo (Pontevedra, 2005-2006). After graduation, she travelled to Helsinki to study at the Kuvataldeaketemia (2007) and later completed a master’s degree in Art, Creation and Research in Madrid (UCM, 2010).
The primary focus of her work is drawing, which she interrelates with other disciplines such as architecture, handicraft and design, paying particular attention to issues related to affectivity with the environment.
Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Espacio Valverde (Composición de lugar, 2014; La tapadera, 2012); at the Sala de Arte Joven, as part of the programme 9, un proyecto sobre dibujo contemporáneo (2011); at A.C. Mediodía Chica (Condiciones y efectos personales, 2010); and at the Cable Factory in Helsinki (Paredes de piel, 2007).
She has recently been awarded several distinctions and grants. In addition to earning an honourable mention in the XIX Gregorio Prieto Drawing Competition (2009) and coming in as a finalist for the ABC Drawing Award (JustMad2, 2011), she also received a Contemporary Creation Grant from Matadero Madrid to produce the project Objeto de duda (2011) and was awarded in the 23rd Circuitos de Artes Plásticas (2012) and Generaciones 2013.
She currently lives and works in Madrid.
The primary focus of her work is drawing, which she interrelates with other disciplines such as architecture, handicraft and design, paying particular attention to issues related to affectivity with the environment.
Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Espacio Valverde (Composición de lugar, 2014; La tapadera, 2012); at the Sala de Arte Joven, as part of the programme 9, un proyecto sobre dibujo contemporáneo (2011); at A.C. Mediodía Chica (Condiciones y efectos personales, 2010); and at the Cable Factory in Helsinki (Paredes de piel, 2007).
She has recently been awarded several distinctions and grants. In addition to earning an honourable mention in the XIX Gregorio Prieto Drawing Competition (2009) and coming in as a finalist for the ABC Drawing Award (JustMad2, 2011), she also received a Contemporary Creation Grant from Matadero Madrid to produce the project Objeto de duda (2011) and was awarded in the 23rd Circuitos de Artes Plásticas (2012) and Generaciones 2013.
She currently lives and works in Madrid.
