Abierto x Obras - Exhibition by Cristina Mejías

Cristina Mejías’ (Jerez de la Frontera, 1986) work remains attentive to oral tradition, listening and storytelling, and she uses sculpture, installation art and video as her primary working tools. Mejías has a degree in Fine Arts from Madrid and Dublin’s NCAD. She developed part of her artistic practice in Berlin before returning to Madrid, where she currently lives and works. She has recently held solo shows at institutions such as C3A (Cordoba), Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid), RoyalMount (Montreal, Canada), Centro Párraga (Murcia), Teatro La Capilla alongside Víctor Colmenero Mir (CDMX, Mexico), the Museo de Cádiz, Blueproject Foundation (Barcelona) and the Museo Arte Contemporáneo del Zulia (Maracaibo, Venezuela), among others. Her works will be soon on display at La Panera (Lérida).

She has received various awards, residencies and grants, including: ARCOmadrid’s Illy Award, the 9th International Obra Abierto Visual Art Award (joint winner), the 2023 ARCO Foundation Award, the Community of Madrid ARCO Award, the Generación 2020 Award, and art residencies at Hermes Artes Visuais (Sâo Paulo, Brasil), ArtWorks (Porto, Portugal) in collaboration with Matadero’s CRA, Tabakalera (San Sebastián) and MACZUL (Maracaibo, Venezuela).

Lengua en coro, cuenta (Tongue in Choir, Tell) was conceived in dialogue with the place where it is presented: the old cold storage room of Madrid’s Municipal abattoir. The space is crossed lengthwise by what were once the drainage channels of the municipal facility. Based on these and the desire to recover this disused, covered and forgotten element, Cristina invites us to enter this installation in which water becomes a sensitive material that flows through a mesh of sculptural gestures that feed stories and construct narratives.

There is something magical and fascinating, almost hypnotic, about observing the flow of water: The sound transports us to the Arab gardens so prevalent in Andalusian architecture. At the same time, it reminds us of nature and the fragile balance that sustains it, and of those legends that shape us and have been passed down from generation to generation. This installation delves into Mejías’ desire to understand the materiality of knowledge-building, to grasp the functioning of transmission, and to comprehend that each element is transformed in contact with the other, adding layers of meaning, and that it is precisely in this evolution where its richness lies.