This work was created in 1980 as a tribute to Juan Hidalgo, a Spanish conceptual artist who made her aware of the experience of John Cage in the anechoic chamber. Cage’s work, like Silence, explores the dichotomy between sound and silence, demonstrating that it is not possible to achieve absolute silence in life, which is constantly interrupted by some sound or other. The original work in small dimensions (67 x 15 cm) at first, was conceived as a little artist’s book entitled Definition of Silence rolled up and placed in a used cigar case. The definition in Spanish of the concept of Silence according to Concha Jerez is distributed permutationally in seven columns and is written in black marker on a translucent strip of polyester. This definition is:

Silence/conventional sign/(a musical sign)/transmits/aesthetical/sounds

Later, this content was presented in an intervention on the wall of a small chapel as part of the installation the creator produced in 1989 in the Capilla del Oldorin Alcalá de Henares, with the title Transgresión de Tiempos (Transgression of Times).

In the version Concha Jerez made specifically for Es Baluard, the definition of silence is developed in seven different languages: English, Spanish, Catalan, German, French, Italian and Portuguese, in each of the seven columns, so that the word corresponding to the definition in each of the languages appears in different typographies, adhered to the wall, always in the colour black. With this in situ work in the museum space, the artist calls for silence and incites us to listen attentively to what is going on around us. The place where the work is located forms part of it and is a living element, with sounds that change throughout the day; with Silencio Concha Jerez offers us a different poetic experience, an appreciation of the museum through its sounds.

M.G.