Un puente donde quedarse

[A Bridge To Stay On]

Guillermo Mora

2022

Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid

A Bridge To Stay On, an exhibition conceived specifically for Sala Alcalá 31, takes Guillermo Mora’s investigation into the traditional boundaries of painting to the next level. With this new project, the artist approaches the pictorial from a variety of different perspectives and emphatically conveys his idea of “painting as resistance”.

The radical decision to replace the hall’s usual longitudinal itinerary with an alternative route that introduces new angles and gazes is a manifesto of the overwhelming power of paint. Twelve colossal colourful structures whose shape recalls the profile of a broken frame—the perimeter that once contained and delimited painting—transect the space. The gallery’s conventional hierarchies are modified, building bridges between both sides of the hall and connecting the main level to the first floor. This ground-breaking approach questions the centuries-old role of painting as a contemplative window at the mercy of the establishment, a barrier and a screen used to conceal and silence other ideas.

The formal complexity of Guillermo Mora’s artistic language is clearly illustrated in this show by forty selected works from the last fifteen years of the artist’s career, assembled in a total, circular project. All the pieces—from the magnificent central installation to the delicate works occupying the floor, corners, ceiling or walls—reconcile the micro with the macro, the private with the public, the canvas with the architecture, and the artist’s studio with the exhibition space. At the same time, they grant the colour of paint the ability to effect change.