Of other spaces

Of other spaces explores the possibility of living inside a mirror, a non-place in which we see ourselves reflected, we see ourselves in there- but we are not. Candela Bado’s sculptures investigate the construction of identity through traditional processes. By appropriating characteristic languages ​​of different visual cultures and juxtaposing them, she seeks to sculpt new images of who we are. By placing the object as the narrator, latent stories and meanings encapsulated in elements such as flags, tiles, monuments and ruins, are unveiled. In a semiotic exercise, she dissects these languages ​​and manipulates the relationship between signified and signifier, thus disconcerting the relationship that we ourselves establish with these objects/images. Candela’s work makes us see history as a city. But who inhabits history? Flags made of ceramic chains reflect the contradiction existing between strength and fragility, both materially and symbolically. In composing flags with these flimsy chains, the power of this ubiquitous symbol in our political system is unseated, questioning its ability to represent and mediate human relationships. The traditional blue and white ceramics, a craft practice that has transmuted through centuries and continents, is seized by Candela and brought to her present by impregnating it with scribbles similar to those found in the streets. With a legitimate irreverence, the artist demands a place within the history of ceramics, thus challenging the post-colonial heritages and power structures that subordinate us. Ruins of buildings are reduced to toys that can be manipulated and moved. Through this game, the patrimonial and historical value scheme is inverted, allowing to explore the past we currently inhabit. Monuments are perceived as instructive vehicles that indoctrinate an image of who we are, in Candela’s work they loose their political aura as they become fragmented and anonymous bodies. These statues do not consecrate events or people, they are gestures that we make among ourselves. What may seem like a playful re-interpretation of things, is an audacious rupture where a proposition of a new order of things is presented. In this new configuration, what separates the personal from the collective and the affective from the political is forged in ceramics and then broken. The city is transformed into a palimpsest of alternative narratives, and history into a vibrant city covered with anonymous scribbles. In these spaces, the individual defines their own belonging. And without any coercive force, the individual reconstructs the present to their own image and truth.