Nada reiterada...

Nada reiterada is a significant work in the sculptural production of Mar Arza, whose interest lies in object-books physically and textually intervened. The work begins with a copy of the novel Nada by Carmen Laforet (Barcelona, 1921 – Madrid, 2004), an existentialist text published in 1945 and winner of the 1944 Nadal Prize, which describes the social and cultural oppressiveness of the Spanish post-war period. Despite its immediate success and prominent place in post-war literature, it was forgotten until the 2000s, when it was re-published to popular acclaim.

With an impeccable execution, Arza has cut out and extracted the text of the novel following the outline of the words, except for some strategically preserved together with some punctuation marks, which remain visible and configure a new, poetic and powerful text. What the artist has not cut out is the heading of the pages, including the numbering and the title of the novel, a reiterated Nada (Nothingness) that appears page after page, in a double game that simultaneously refers to the artist’s emptying of the text. Arza places the 87 pages of the novel in a large composition on the wall. Fixed with pins, it creates an ethereal sensation of great visual efficiency. The game of emptiness in the text and shadows on the wall, the feeling of wounds and subtle cuts, and the blank spaces corresponding to each of the missing words emphasise the forcefulness and poetics of the few phrases that the artist has decided to keep. The nothingness invoked by Nada reiterada points in more than one direction: the emptiness of post-war daily life, the oblivion subsequently suffered by the novel and the narrative gaps that the artist opens in the text.