Clara Sánchez Sala

Clara Sánchez Sala - Omphalós

Technique: Bronze and metal

Artist Biography: Clara Sánchez Sala is a contemporary artist born in 1987 in Alicante, Spain. Her artistic training began at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Valencia, where she graduated in 2010. Subsequently, she continues her training with a master's degree in Research and Creation in Art, at the same institution. In 2014, she obtains a scholarship at the Institute for Research and Experimentation in Art and Criticism (I.I.E.A.C.) of the Complutense University of Madrid.Clara Sánchez's work focuses on exploring connections between scientific, literary and technological data, from a poetic point of view. Her artistic research focuses on three fundamental themes: the fictional dimension of cartographic representation, the reflection on the landscape as a space of encounter and the Earth as the primordial experience of man.through her work, Clara Sánchez seeks to create a discourse always referring to the complex world of fiction that we humans generate in that incessant strangeness that consists of the encounter with the external world, and that we usually call: "real". Her work is developed in different formats, from painting and sculpture to installation and video art, and has been exhibited in several galleries and museums in Spain, France, Germany, Portugal and the United States. Some of her solo exhibitions include "Hueso" at My Name's Lolita Art Gallery in Valencia in 2014, "Cosmogonías" at Punto Gallery in Valencia in 2016 and "Mecánica de la Mirada" at Pepita Lumier Gallery in Valencia in 2019.In 2016, she received the Focus-Abengoa International Painting Prize in Seville, Spain, and in 2018, she was selected to participate in the Casa Velázquez Artistic Residency in Madrid. Clara Sánchez's work is part of public and private collections in Spain and other countries, including the Focus-Abengoa Collection, the Contemporary Art Collection of the University of Valencia and the Contemporary Art Collection of the Coca-Cola Foundation.

 

Noli me tangere A navel is like a knot. But the knot is a closed connection, like the symbol of infinity where time is eternal. However, in this carnal knot time does not cease to be, its shape and texture change with the different stages of life reminding you that your time is finite. Five centuries ago the navel was a burning problem for theologians and painters. If neither Eve nor Adam were born of woman, there was no reason for the remains of their umbilical cord to exist, that is, for them to have navels. But if they lacked them, were they not imperfect as human beings? While the theologians disputed, the painters tried not to compromise. They increased the size of the vine leaves to hide at the same time the genital parts and navels of Adam and Eve. This dilemma did not seem to be of concern in the Paleolithic. In various excavations, several "venus" have been found with a notorious and deep navel in the abdomen, as if time had been the same for them as for any mortal. Perhaps this umbilical debate is not only a merely temporal question, but a reflection of a specific concern in a specific time and space. This form of umbilical time, on the one hand, eternal, but on the other, perishable, is what also seems to have permeated the historicization of the arts, in which artists bear historical witness to the spirit of their time and society. Noli me tangere explores the representation of the human body (after all, it is the subject capable of suffering any situation and of confronting it), starting from erotic forms such as navels, breasts and lips from a classical point of view, but also from a current, historical or cultural one. The naked lips of a classical Greek bust painted with lipstick that further emphasize its nudity, several bronze navels connected by chains as umbilical cords knotted together and hindering the viewer's passage, or the print of a woman's breasts made at the moment of knowing her state of pregnancy, are some of the pieces that establish a dialogue focused on the human aspects that are hidden within the systems of temporal interpretation. Likewise, the title of the project Noli me tangere (Do not touch me), are the words that Jesus Christ addresses to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, because her body no longer belongs to that time or that space, but beyond that, it also alludes to an action that continues in time (Do not hold me), let time pass. Bio Clara Sánchez Sala (Alicante, 1987) has a degree in Fine Arts from the UCLM, Cuenca; Master in Photography Theory and Artistic Projects, UEM, Madrid and Master in Research in Art and Creation UCM, Madrid. Throughout his career he has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions including Centre del Carme, Valencia; Juan March Foundation: Museum of Abstract Art, Cuenca; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid; Marso Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico; Soares Dos Reis National Museum, Porto; Otazu Foundation, Pamplona; Las Cigarreras Cultural Center; Alicante, La Laboral, Gijon; EACC, Castellon and Conde Duque Cultural Center, Madrid. He has recently received the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport's Grants for Creation; XXIX Circuitos de Artes Plásticas de la Comunidad de Madrid Award, Injuve Grants for young creation; residency grants for young artists abroad from the Comunidad de Madrid. His work is part of collections such as Colección de arte contemporáneo de la Generalitat Valenciana, DKV, CA2M and Fundación Otazu among others.