College of Architectural Technicians of Barcelona, January-February 2006

ORIOL RIUS

The exhibition culminates a series of works around the 'walls' that we build to protect ourselves from the others, from what is strange or we want it to be so, from those who do not want to share our wealth and welfare with. Or to protect the fruits of plundering and domination, the supposed superiority of race and religion, or simply to protect ourselves from our own fears.

It all started when I saw the photo of these girls in Abu-Dis, striving to go to school, crossing a gap in the wall that surrounds Palestine:

From there I went to develop the various works on The Wall, which can be viewed on this website: The Wall, in Montcada, the work Break Down the Walls, in the Reixac Chapel, the site break down the walls and the exhibition Break Down the Walls in the exhibition hall A Punt in Badalona, among others.

In this exhibition The Wall-Utopia of Thorns, the second that I have the pleasure to display in the College of Quantity Surveyors and Architectural Technicians of Barcelona, presenting two installations alluding to the wall:

Half barring the entrance, we are called out by a few large half demolished blocks, similar to the Israeli wall surrounding Palestine. Therefore, they are also similar to the work Break Down The Walls.
 
utopia d'espins
  Break down-entrada expo   Conjunt exposició   Mur-Wall   Detall obres   Power point  
 

Once we have passed the barrier of blocks we discover the second installation: a big curve of spines which winds suspended from the ceiling, illuminated by a focus-spot that casts an unexpected shadow on a wall: the sinusoidal curve projects, at the same time, a circle and a square, as if to denote that the utopia of hitting the walls and wire fences of thorns is still possible.

Several new works that revolve around the wall are also presented this way. I want to highlight Mur/Wall because it summarizes the concerns that drive my work. Finally, the exhibition is completed with a projection of images and texts on the walls of Palestine and Berlin and California and the ones we build in our minds.