Valeria Maculan. Llengua de foc

“Llengua de foc” is a textile installation conceived as a scenic device, created in collaboration with the artisan workshop Bujosa.

The central piece is a large suspended curtain that cuts across the space. Inside it, the choir costumes are displayed, accompanied by a series of wooden masks whose mouths take the shape of megaphones, designed to project the voice. This ensemble is activated during the opening reception through a choral performance of popular Mallorcan folk songs. The work configures an intermediate space between the scenic and the collective, where textiles, voice and popular memory intertwine.

The title “Llengua de foc” alludes to the motifs on the fabrics used, whose patterns evoke flame-like shapes. In Mallorcan, “flàmules” designates precisely these flaming figures present in the designs.

From its etymological root, theatre is presented as an instrument of contemplation and knowledge. This installation is part of a research that understands the stage as an epistemic device, capable of revealing invisible structures of thought and identity. The scenic gesture does not aim to represent, but to provoke a form of embodied knowledge, in which the viewer is addressed as an active subject. Narrative linearity is replaced by a cyclical, ritual and sensorial logic.

This project continues a line of work in which the artist explores the elements of the scenic space from a performative, textile and visual perspective. The crossover between body, image, sound and matter proposes an expanded dramaturgy, where the symbolic is embodied through weaves, gestures and vibrations. On this occasion, the use of choral singing and Mallorcan textile elements activates a collective dimension of memory and belonging, engaging with the local context through a sense of community.

“Llengua de foc” suggests a scene suspended between the textile, the choral and the symbolic. It is a living work waiting to be ignited by the voice, activating a poetics of the in-between—between bodies, times, memories and incarnated knowledge.

 

Valeria Maculan (Buenos Aires, 1968) develops an artistic practice that investigates the limits of the pictorial plane as a critical device. Her work addresses the configurations of the social body—in its physical, psychic and symbolic dimensions—, exploring how these bodies are constructed, represented and dislocated through visual and performative languages.

She has had solo exhibitions at Espacio OTR, Galería Jorge López, Galería Tramo, Galería Magda Bellotti, Matadero-Madrid, Galería Jean Brolly, Galería Braga Menéndez, Galería SlyZmud, Ecole des Beaux-arts de Besançon, Museo MACRO and CCEBA.

Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Artium (2024); C. Alcobendas (2024); Galería Jorge López (2021); Galería Patricia Dorfmann, Paris (2019); Galería Kir Royal, Madrid (2017); Espacio OTR, Madrid (2014); Galería Magda Bellotti/ León/ Ponferrada/ Cádiz  (2014- 2013); CEART, Madrid (2013); MAMBA (2012); Le 10 neuf, Montbéliard, France (2010); FNA. Bs.As. (2010);  Casa de América, Madrid (2010); Dumbo Art Center, USA (2008); Diverse Works Art Space, USA (2007).

She has received awards such as MataderoCrea and the grants of the Comunidad de Madrid, VEGAP, FNA, Kuitca and Fundación Antorchas. She has participated in residencies such as Skowhegan School of Art, The Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) and Centro Cultural Andratx. She has also directed Alimentación30, an independent space in Madrid, from 2014 to 2023.