“PARETARA”. Lorea Alfaro

In summer this year we invited Lorea Alfaro to produce something for One Wall Productions. She responded with an intervention on the Bulegoa z/b wall. PARETARA is the first part of a work whose second part, PARETARA BI, subtitled Me salva tu piel (Your skin saves me) will be shown at Galería Carreras Múgica, Bilbao. ( www.carrerasmugica.com ). The double intervention in two separate spaces will take place at the same time, between December 2014 and January 2015.

PARETARA is part of several years work on the relationship between background and figure. Alfaro studies the instability of a relationship which has been historically predetermined by the conventions of painting: a series of canvases painted on both sides, with backgrounds taken from historical paintings whose figures have been removed, are hung from the ceiling, producing and articulating the space the viewer walks through (Plegu, 2008-2009); a visual poem is stencilled and repeated ad infinitum, like the corporate logos in the backgrounds of photocalls, onto the ceiling of a tunnel (Deux Negresses, 2013)or the information panels on museum walls (ELE, 2013; a huge canvas perforated with tiny holes has plastic flowers knotted into it and iconic media images such as the Facebook “Like” or parodied models of masculinity printed on it, and functions both as a background and closure for the space and as a screen and visual opening onto the other side (Telón Thug Life, 2013).

Lorea Alfaro (Estella-Lizarra, Navarra, 1982) is an artist based in Bilbao. In 2011 she, David Martínez Suárez, Jon Otamendi and Manu Uranga started up MLDJ, an artist-run space in Bilbao. She has exhibited individually at Museo Gustavo de Maeztu, Estella-Lizarra (2008) and taken part in residency programmes and group exhibitions such as Gure Artea 2008, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; Let’s Go to China!!! Spanish Contemporary Art Exhibition, EGG Gallery, Beijing (2010); Esta puerta pide clavo, Galerie Tatjana Pieters, Gante (2012); Izena gero, Guggenheim Bilbao (2013); First thought best, Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2014); Antes que todo, CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid (2010); and Pop Politics: activismos a 33 revoluciones, also at the CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2012).