With El salto Alvaro Machimbarrena (San Sebastián, 1958) creates a complete transformation of the exhibition space. The artist converts Espacio 1 into a sculpture one can transit, based on round volumes, sharp lines and where white is the only colour.
The result is a project where architecture and sculpture converge to create a place that, from a symbolic reading of white as a sign of purity, can be understood as sacred.
The installation consists of two parts: the first room traversed by a trampoline -tight, white horizontal line- which rises above the public eye and parallel to the ceiling.
The second room is connected by a narrow opening in the wall, and leads to an area consisting of a bed with two pillows, whose dimensions far exceed a human scale. The steps on the side -in turn hidden by a wall- allow an aerial view.
El salto is the development of a space inside its seminal space. In the words of critic and manager John Paul Huercanos, it is "a territory modelled for reflection and silence." In this way, when the public transits it they do not find any object or sign that is not part of the white space, defined by the geometry and volumetric projection.
When listing the materials with which he constructs the installation Machimbarrena notes that he uses wood, paint and nothing. That nothing summarises the will to extol the principle of the invisible, as an agent that gives value to the stage set.
This place or monument dedicated to the unknown -whether the destination of the jump or the journey towards sleep or death- resorts to the memory and the play of dimensions which activate invisible emotions.
The clean lines, the geometry of the shapes and the colour white all favour the expansion of vision and perception of an ambiguous space with incomprehensible limits. In this sense, the act of jumping is taken to mean the desire to conquer a new medium, of a perfect state of life and dominated by white, following the path that artist Kasimir Malevich traces.
Exhibition´s details
Museo Reina Sofía Publications
