Ecos y Correspondencias

Parra//Gironella is a family collage, an exhibition where you can observe the echos and correspondences of a heritage. In it, the art of four generations of Mexican artists with different aesthetics is reunited: Manuel Parra, Alberto Gironella, Carmen Parra y Emiliano Gironella. The purpose of this exhibition is a reflexion on the multiple perspectives generated in their artwork, where a creative dialogue, going beyond the family bond, comes together. Some of the shared echoes between these artists lie on similar critical positions that they take in the face of contemporary events and characters, as well as the expressive gestures, baroque at times, that they resort to in their pieces and the aesthetic they created from collage and the assembly of shapes, images and objects.

There are no chronological routes to follow in this exhibit. The curatorial proposal resulted in an assemblage, a collage of thematic and formal concepts. Likewise, the exhibition invites the observer to make connections between the artworks presented and their own baggage. The discourse was established by prioritising a desire to put these analogies in evidence, as well as to allow the pieces to speak for themselves and to give the spectator the opportunity to create their own experiences.

Manuel Parra (1911 - 1997) is one of the most relevant architects who has left a legacy in the architecture of the area of San Angel in Mexico City. One can find the emblematic house of Emilio el Indio Fernandez among his projects. In his work, he revived artisanal methods of building and made use of vernacular materials. His obsession for chimneys, porches, and terraces, full of light and shadow, is present in his designs. Furthermore, it persists in the walks along pebbled alleys, full of maze-like streets with lit by colonial lanterns.

Alberto Gironella (1929 - 1999) was an artist representative of the Generación de la Ruptura (Breakaway Generation). He made assemblages with unconventional materials, such as tins and bottle caps with which he payed homage to figures in the History of Spanish Art, such as Francisco de Goya and Diego Velázquez. The collage is not only present in the materiality of the artistic object but also in the traditions -Spanish and Mexican- that conjugate a particular amalgam.

Carmen Parra (1944-) alludes in her work to altars of New Spanish tradition through the representation of archangels and monarch butterflies, recurring motifs that speak of concepts such as metamorphosis and migration.

Emiliano Gironella (1972-) expresses in his artistic language the violence that is experienced in Latin America caused by drug trafficking and organised crime. Death is a playful theme that is always present in his work. He creates contemporary narratives by incorporating non-traditional media such as "grenades and poppies" as metaphors for everyday events.

The exhibition is a great collage. It is a juxtaposition of timeless conceptual planes where diverse traditions and ancestral legacies evoke the possibility of new proposals and critical understandings.