HEREDITAS. GONZALO BORONDO

The Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art presents the exhibition project Hereditas, by the artist Gonzalo Borondo, thanks to the sponsorship of the Diputación Provincial de Segovia.

Hereditas, by Gonzalo Borondo, is a complex intervention in the museum space. Its aim is to question the past on the basis of present presuppositions, in particular, to recognise the museum as a place to preserve our cultural heritage for future generations and to show art’s amazing capacity to bring back to life objects that have lost their original purpose. In addition, it pays tribute to nature as the foundation of culture and inspiration of art and religious symbols.

Hereditas offers the viewer an immersive experience that goes beyond mere contemplation, placing them in an in situ “interaction” with the artist. Borondo began this type of action in 2017 (the first was Cenere in Selci, Italy), but with Hereditas his creation is different to all the preceding work as it takes place in a museum. In this case, the white cube, as the exhibition space has come to be known in modern times, is paradoxically nullified and turned into a black cube, thus recovering the building’s former uses.

The Esteban Vicente Contemporary Art Museum occupies a building in which are overlaid the different layers that make up the history of Segovia, from the mid-15^th century to the present. It was originally the city palace of the controversial Henry IV, on whose death it passed into the hands of the most noble families of the city, even becoming an Old People’s Hospice, and later the School of Arts and Crafts and Museum of Holy Art. This building was, therefore, witness to political, social and religious matters that are what has inspired the artist’s different interventions in the rooms and corridors making up the Museum.

The exhibition refers to the two fundamental heritages of humanity – the natural and the cultural. The mandatorily ascending path through this experience is structured in four chapters or “altars.” The first three are a homage to the natural heritage by way of the vegetable (Herba/grass), mineral (Petra/stone) and animal (Carnis/carne) kingdoms, while the fourth chapter (Eter/ether) is reserved for the field of the immaterial, for that dimension springing from the mind, which is so necessary, so mysterious and so hard to define.

For this exhibition, Gonzalo Borondo has recovered original testimonies from the past (sculptures, columns, pieces of tracery, alcoves, etc.), which at times are shown just as they are, while at others they are recreated in a contemporary key. By means of this strategy, the artist turns the attention on the future, typical of a contemporary art museum, into a broad consideration of the past. He uses highly disparate languages and supports – installations, painting, projections, animation, optical illusions, sophisticated digital technology, sound effects, etc. These are creations and recreations with a strong illusionary component where the experimental character stands out, inasmuch as most of the work was carried out in the same place where it is shown.

From the viewpoint of contemporary art, Hereditas is a site-specific creation and a set of installations. It is a choral work breaking with the logic we are accustomed to. Borondo intervenes on the entire building, extending his “interaction” into the most remote corners. He disrupts the viewer’s conventional route, providing surprises and moments of true sensorial pleasure, converting the visit into an experience we hope will affect their sensitivity and accompany them in time.

Gonzalo Borondo was born in Valladolid in 1989. Shortly after, he moved to Segovia, where he grew up and lived until 2003, when he left for Madrid. Since then, graffiti, activism and alternative art groups became his real school. His work on urban space began with political aims, and later took on a more poetic bent, with works in USA, Europe and even India. Since 2010 he has shown an interest in establishing affective and disruptive dialogues in very disparate spaces. As of 2012, individual exhibitions in Rome, Madrid, Paris and London have been key to his career. For the past four years he has focused on making site-specific projects resulting from dialogue with the context of the intervened space. For some of these interventions he has had the collaboration of other artists, who have enhanced the project through their technical and creative skills. Such collaborations have added a curatorial aspect to his latest projects. The heterogeneity of Borondo’s work prevents giving his work a specific style or genre. Each project implies the discovery of new paths and the acceptance of new challenges. However, as the artist himself states, all of these are brought together by his desire to create places and ambiences where the viewer can sense the pulse of all the lives of the intervened space.

José María Parreño

Curator