08 Feb SER SON (Solo Exhibition)

Monica Mura. Ser Son

Audience: General public
Curator: Sara Donoso
Location: Sala Alterarte (Ourense Campus, Uvigo)
Price: Free entry until full capacity

More information
Exhibition sheet
Catalogue

This exhibition is part of the project Activating the Gaze. Disordering Thought, in which, throughout the 2021-22 academic year, the artists Isabel Flores, Monica Mura, Basilisa Fiestras and Mar Ramón Soriano participate, and which represents a new exhibition cycle for the gallery, belonging to the University of Vigo. This project aims to highlight contemporary creation by women from a diverse, critical, and reflective perspective.

Ser son is an exhibition and performance project in which Monica Mura highlights the cultural significance of carnival masks from the province of Ourense through the composition of a soundscape reinterpreted in contemporary language, connecting the different characters of the “entroido” via the leitmotiv of the use of bells in traditional costumes. Jingle bells, small bells, cowbells, chocallas, chocallos, axóuxeres, chocas, chocos, sleigh bells… are some of the elements composing the installation, giving each mask a golden string. In direct dialogue with each association or lender, Monica Mura carried out an in-depth field investigation to collect data on materials, dimensions, place of manufacture, types of bells used, and the people who wear these masks. Some of the conclusions include the gradual loss of local artisanal bell-making, as well as a shift toward more egalitarian practices that began taking shape after resuming activities following the end of the dictatorship.

By removing the visual impact of the masks to focus on their sound recording, Monica Mura brings the identity-driven musicality of each location into the exhibition space. This creates a work where the evocation of the outdoors and festive atmosphere is sensed in the intimate scale of the gallery, reinforced by the subtle gradation of gold in the strings and their corresponding bells. From there, attention is placed on the body, on all bodies, as the drivers of folklore, using her own body as a vehicle to unite their voices. When activating the elements composing the piece and the bells, jingle bells, sleigh bells, chocos… begin to sound, producing a kind of exorcism in our perception, a performative act full of suffering and delight. Closing our eyes, we continue to perceive the tensions, rhythms, and pauses—the vibrations of a ritual where rehearsal and improvisation embrace their differences. The sound of the “entroido,” now activated from the prism of contemporary creation, retains the suspicion of its essence.

Text: Sara Donoso