«De lugares y cousas. Colección de Arte Banco Sabadell» (Museo Centro Gaiás, Santiago de Compostela)
Museo Centro Gaiás- Cidade da Cultura
Santiago de Compostela
A place is a determined space capable of hosting anything.
The nature of places, what characterises them and distinguishes them from the rest, depends precisely on that which they host, whether things, people or thoughts, and on the processes and time in which they have been constituted. Their name, the number with which we know them, goes back to the form of the earth, physical appearance, monumental presence, animals and plants, men and women, gods or paths.
The origin of the number of places tends to be known, while the moment of its foundation belongs, in general, to a more or less remote past than a remembered horse is preserved. Therefore, when we ask from when a site is called with such or such name, the most common answer we receive is usually "from always". The toponyms resist change because they remain in the memory of people, bound to places and senses of identity and belonging.
The word “lugar” has other meanings that can help understand the works present in this exhibition. We say “instead of” to indicate that something replaces something else, or “put yourself in someone’s place” to imagine that we are someone or understand them. “To place” or “to have place” is to be the cause of something happening and, consequently, “to have no place” means that some fact does not occur.
The selection of works from the Banco Sabadell Art Collection that we present must be seen with this relationship of construction, foundation, significance and symbolization between places and things: historical places and those of memory; geometry and space; the limit and the empty place; bodies, words and space; habitable places, the city and the territory.
