Espejo y Reino / Ornamento y Estado is an installation by artist Álvaro Perdices and curated by María Virginia Jaua. The project – designed specifically for the spaces of the CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo – puts forward the concept of confronting the idea of the archive with the deconstruction of the notions of State and institution framed within the personal and the historical.

We understand an archive to be the compendium and conservation of a past that has been lost due to the transformation of the institutional spaces responsible for collective memory; on the other hand, we consider deconstruction to be an exercise of questioning, dismantling and critical thought regarding the symbolic languages of representation, which are inherent when it comes to how narratives are read.

Perdices’s work, which he carried out in the exhibition department of the Prado Museum  together with his own artistic practice, led him to express this thought that revolves around the research done on two important institutional spaces of the Spanish State’s recent past; the Salón de Reinos in the Buen Retiro Palace – that for many years housed the Army Museum – and the woodworking workshops of the Ocaña Prison in Toledo.

With this research and the idea of critical thinking at its core, this exhibition for the CA2M is an installation made up of several series of photographs that, by using visual archaeology, shows the dismantling of the Salón de Reinos – that has been recently remodelled – and includes a sculptural ensemble based on the furniture produced at the Ocaña prison, as well as two video screenings. The architectural mechanism that articulates these elements was created in collaboration with Estudio Herreros.

Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo. CA2M >

Javier Montes. El Pais. El arte del remordimiento español >

Ianko López. El Pais. Álvaro Perdices, el artista que reflexiona sobre la ruina estética española >

Aurora Fernández Polanco. Contexto. Cantar patrás. Abrir la historia son contemplaciones ( ni censuras) >

artecompacto. rtve >

Luis Francisco Pérez. Espejo y Reino / Ornamento y Estado >

All photos ©Patri Nieto