In view of the imminent destruction of the service wing of the house -of the 19th century- located in Havre 77, Luis Carrera-Maul made an artistic intervention to make us notice the energy contained in the materials; and to honor the life of those who wandered there, of the architecture, of their time and of what they generated, which was impregnated in the place. The axis of the intervention is translation; it moves the memory and resignifies it into sculptural and pictorial elements.
The work is a complex web of meanings and senses, since it points to Luis' alphabet: compression, suspension, encapsulation, subtraction and projection, formulating sentences and paragraphs, which for reasons of extension, we will not be able to go into in depth, for now. More if commenting, that all the developed pieces start from a single principle: the translation and deconstruction of the elements of the property in objects or aesthetic experiences.
In the manner of a large installation, each element is in tension with itself, with the others and with an appreciation of the relationship. Carefully Luis and a team of workers dismantled the parts of the construction and reassembled them in another meaning. From the beginning we are welcomed by a wavy wall; made with the stave of the floor that separated the first space in elevation, from the second. By way of appropriation of Richard Serra's volumetric research, Luis detonates the construction and as an expanded breath, the wall, formerly a floor, leads us to the building's shell. Three pieces are inserted in it: the compacting of the ceiling, a post-traditional painting installation and a drawing by subtraction.
Arranged as a binomial, to enhance their meaning, the compact and the white surface to floor (similar to a canvas), invite us to contemplate a dynamic painting. Made by a pair of acrylics placed on the structure of the building and its shadow, which free of its original meaning, now is ready to be the lines and color spots, that the light (sun) will show on the whitewashed canvas and the floor.
The wall drawing is the result of subtracting the most recent layer of paint from the wall; its ultimate memory. With an (apparently) subtle gesture, Luis reveals the total strategy of the intervention in H.77: the operation of his thought. The place had a form painted on it. On the wall of the first floor, there was the (circular) emblem of the Indian beer. All over the space, you could see the marks left by the passing of time and the erosion of materials, which vibrated with contained beauty. In a convincing way, Luis was able to get into the site and apply his artistic research in a synergic way. He unwraps the layers of memory, the elements of construction, the aesthetic strength of the materials and the principles of design. Like a sharp surgeon, he unravels the forms with his materials and leaves visible a stratigraphy that at will of knowledge is shown.
When we come out of the shell we come across a wall of beams on a wall. The echo with the undulating wall can be felt. The connection is evident and the sign of superposition develops. Each of the pieces of wood resonates upwards. They lead us on our journey, placing us in front of the staircase, which, like a threshold, gives us a hand towards total understanding. The element that connects the physical levels is also that of appreciation. The staircase has a corroded handrail and central post; this shows that Luis' proposal is an ascending-descending spiral over the layers of memory. This is also one of the causes of the stratigraphy.
As a counter sense to conventional painting (which is a slow placement of superimposed layers of color), Luis placed acid on some metal construction elements (the handrail and the staircase support post, the main construction lock and three locks of what used to be the second floor); he painted them as an acceleration device of his life, as a gesture of preparation towards his death-transformation.
And like a cherry on the cake, going up the whole staircase, is the maximum point of observation: the floor of the intervention. It clearly reveals itself as a plane of deconstructive archaeology. Most appreciated reader, do not descend without stopping at the second level. Note, look carefully, that the best is not yet said!
H77 : A STRATIGRAPHY TO REFORMULATE SPACE/TIME
olgaMargarita dávila
Mexico City, Mexico
2013