Selected Works






S59 

2022
Two-channel film and sound installation, 35mm slides
16 minutes, color, synchronized, looped
Variable-dimension prints on cotton and paper




S59 takes as its starting point a repository located on the second basement level of the Herbarium at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, where plant specimens and tissues that, for various reasons, have remained uncatalogued and unclassified have accumulated. Through an installation combining 35mm slides, sound, and prints, the project explores blind spots from which to examine the relationships between scientific method, representation, modernity, and colonial science.

The installation consists of three components in different formats. The first is a two-channel 35mm slide projection presenting transcriptions of dialogues from the research, based on interviews with staff working at the Herbarium. This projection is synchronized with a single stereo sound track, conceived as a circular dialogue structured around audio recordings of conversations and field recordings made at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid.

Together with the projections and sound, a series of prints and transfers of varying dimensions is presented, based on newspapers found in the S59 repository before their disposal. Originally used to collect and dry botanical specimens prior to their incorporation into the Herbarium, these newspapers bear physical traces of the plants, creating an interplay between the photographic image and the absent vegetal matter, whose volume and relief remain imprinted on the paper. Selected images from these newspapers form new visual narratives through their material traces and are mounted on different surfaces throughout the installation space.



Actividad realizada con la ayuda del Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte