THE
PARTS, THE MEDIA
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Two colour photographs on aluminium suspended
back to back over the well.
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Artificial vegetation with silver and gold
reflections on the well.
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Black earth around the well.
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40 rectangular mirrors 60 X 30 cm were placed
on the floor of the courtyard reproducing the X design of the floor and
reflecting the building and the sky.
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Four blue spheres, 30 cm diameter each, placed
on the 4 ends of the mirror X.
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A colour photograph 80 X 80 cm situated above
the door of the crypt.
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Miniature light bulbs around the door.
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The floor of the crypt, 490 X 260 cm is covered
by a mirror.
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Thirteen alcoves (arcosolia), tombs,
with installations of objects:
- miniature light bulbs
- crystals
- greek metal votives
- mirrors (round and triangular)
- fluorescent blue butterflies from Brazil.
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Three colour photographs 80 X 80 cm on aluminium
are situated over the alcoves.
On the floor at the left: a heap of black
earth with fragrant lilies.
The installation in situ commissioned by the
Edge Biennial in "Madrid 92, Cultural Capital of Europe", is part of The
Angel Cycle. It is entitled La Puerta del Angel and took place
in the San Isidro Institute, a 16th century cloister next to the Madrid
cathedral. The installation occupied two spaces: the courtyard and the
crypt.
The architecture of the courtyard is based
on the square, the X or cross (design on the floor), the octagon (well)
and a repetition by four of the number five (arcades). The arch is a prevailing
formal element. Symmetrical, this space evokes sacred principles of harmony.
These architectural principles were sustained by sculptural elements specially
created and assembled: mirrors, spheres, vegetation.
A tribute to a remote ancestor, the Cretan
El Greco: in the frame over the well was placed a processed photograph
of a detail of an El Greco painting - the painter’s young son seen on the
foreground of The Burial of Count Orgaz. The boy was pointing to
the direction of The Door.
The Door of the Angel - La Puerta del Angel
- is the door leading to the crypt. The point of transition from the exterior
to the interior, from daylight to obscurity, from the open to the closed
(and however open), from the large to the small (and however large). Transition
from one world to another, the door was framed with light.
The crypt is an abandoned, unknown archaeological
site. It has a surface of approximately 12m2 on the floor, an arched ceiling
and 13 arched alcoves (arcosolia) on its main central wall. A narrow
flight of steps permits to discover the crypt gradually. Immersion. The
crypt is a sacred space, its alcoves conceal ancient tombs.
The small dimension reminds byzantine sanctuaries.
The central front wall was treated as an iconostasis (A partition
with doors and tiers of icons that separates the "bema" from the nave in
eastern churches), a frontier between two worlds, the mundane and the imaginal.
Photographs of the Angel hung on that surface:
colour photographs treated by chemical processes attributing to the contemporary
object which is photography, an archaeological relief. Tubes of miniature
light bulbs and votive objects were placed in the alcoves. A mirror covering
entirely the floor interdicted any further approach of the iconostasis.
In the mirror was reflected the inversed double of the space. Fragrance
of fresh flowers placed on a heap of black earth in a corner of the floor.
The child points to the Secret.
For what do we see?
A blindfolded Renaissance figure
of the In Between
(in between the sexes, in between the
worlds).
The well suggests the Underground (Water).
The crypt as well (Earth).
Underground matrix.
La Puerta del Angel: a meditation space.
M. K. - K. T.
Madrid 1992 |
