Collectable

SOFT, malleable, resilient. The metaphorical power of some materials

The Collectables of the Year Thirty

work
Lúa Coderch

Estil Internacional (Mur d'Ònix)

Physics talks about the tendency of some molecular structures to organise themselves. This is what materials such as wax, certain plastics, rubber and foam do: their plasticity turns them into an endless field of artistic exploration, while opening them up to a rich polysemy. Aware of the potential of some materials, Lúa Coderch uses an inflatable plastic wall to remind us of the imposture of historical narratives. In International Style (Onyx Wall), 2013–14, she evokes the questionable reconstruction made by the city of Barcelona of the onyx wall in the German Pavilion built by Mies van der Rohe and Lily Reich for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. A more organic fitting can be seen in the inflatable structures by Eva Fàbregas, such as Shedding #1, 2021. Like the inhabitants of the island of Lilliput, we are confronted with membranes, festering tissues and metamorphic processes in an exploratory journey inside the human body. For her part, with great material ability, Joana Cera takes us into the terrain of a house of cards. In Rebuilding Castles, 2017, she manages to imbue the ceramic consistency of a pack of cards with the lightness of paper. For malleability is not always associated with weakness, but with the possibility of finding new paths.