Asunción Molinos Gordo, CA2M

DÉJÀ VÉCU. WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN LIVED

Déjà Vécu is her first solo exhibition in a public institution in Madrid. The exhibition is the result of an in-depth exchange between the artist and the curator over the past five years, during which they set out to critically review historical narratives, cultural hierarchies and the construction of collective identity in the context of the Iberian Peninsula. The group of installations, most of them made especially for this exhibition, addresses the urgency of understanding that history, culture and identity are not fixed or pure bodies, but are shaped by an accumulation of diverse elements that overlap, merge and hybridise as naturally as the chemical and physical processes that sustain life.

The déjà vécu – the already lived – invoked in this project also presents us with a disturbing scenario: that which, although dies, reappears.  Each piece in the exhibition invites us to experiment with the ghostly element that is a part of our existence, placed at the inevitable crossroads between the world of the living and that of the dead, between the world of what is and the world of what – apparently – has gone. The exhibition is therefore an exercise in collective memory and, at the same time, in cultural reparation. It reminds us that what has been erased, returns; what has been mutilated, is renewed; and what has been silenced, manifests itself, even doubling the vigour of its former energy. So, can an art exhibition mend a social coexistence wounded by past politics of enmity (Mbembe, 2016)? The answer of this project is that yes, “the dead can inspire the living to act, galvanising those who remain around issues that affect the life of the community” (Despret, 2023) because art continues to be a tool for healing the shared experience of harm.

The oeuvre of Asunción Molinos Gordo (Guzmán, 1979) includes a wide range of media and materials, most of which are organic in nature. Her pieces are made with conventional materials such as ceramics, fabric or wood, but she also uses unusual elements such as bacteria or human faeces. Her projects are the result of research done in situ and almost always linked to rural settings, where she carries out eclectic fieldwork encompassing everything from microbiology to divination. A discipline that helps us to understand her work is alchemy – al-khīmiyā – and the verb associated with it: transmutation. This is at the heart of her work. Just as alchemists searched for the philosopher’s stone that could turn lead into gold, Asunción seeks – and succeeds – in transmuting a mundane material into a precious one.

2024
CA2M, Móstoles, ES
Artist: Asunción Molinos Gordo
Curator: Andrea Pacheco

Exhibition Architecture by Diogo Passarinho Studio
Team: Diogo Passarinho and Gonçalo Reynolds
Photography: Roberto Ruiz. Courtesy of the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo