The work of Julia Llerena Iñesta (b. Seville, 1985) is structured on a clear, almost scientific axis of coordinates, like the axes used in physics to represent the relationship between space, time and motion. Two interesting themes intersect there: the exploration of space, in all its myriad forms; and the exploration of speech as a form of thought and knowledge, for it is through language and naming that we approach the things of the world, make them ours and come to know them.
The motion factor is introduced by the way Llerena carries out her projects: she always begins with an exploration on foot of adjacent terrains linked to her own life experience, where she almost intuitively gathers remnants and detritus, traces of our "life on earth". After that random harvest, the laboratory work begins: she observes, studies and organizes the collected fragments in a classification system based on the elements' material properties, which she uses to weave a new narrative separate from the material history of the objects. The final result is presented to us as an open archive in the gallery, where Llerena carefully arranges all of these elements, revealing their relationships and giving them new meanings. This exercise rooted in the simplicity of repetition, in the act of doing (walking, gathering, touching, seeing and ordering) and the complexity of maintaining it over time (most of Llerena's projects require a long production time) is the foundation on which she constructs the large installations and small interventions we see in this exhibition.
Llerena's work is anchored in a structure of grid axes on which opposite terms and concepts are balanced and contrasted (black/white, empty/full, noise/silence, nature/society, near/far, construction/deconstruction, etc.) and on which complex abstract theoretical reflections are revealed through poetic readings at our fingertips. This movement of comings and goings, of nearness and distance, is precisely where Llerena's work grows and expands, because it generates a space that includes and directly addresses the audience, inviting them to decipher its hieroglyphs, to interpret each piece from their own perspective and, ultimately, to wonder about themes as unique and universal as each and every one of us. From the specificity of I to the incommensurability of we. From this gallery to Ros 128 b. In this space yet to be inhabited.
ESCUDERO, Beatriz. Home, a Global Matter