Motherhoods. A diverse perspective Temporary exhibition

Elena del Rivero's Letters to the mother –a series that currently runs to more than 5,000 works– is an enormous confessional frieze that evokes the abyssal relationship with her mother. On a sheet of paper with columns consisting of just one word, mother, the artist inscribes the signs that shape her inner struggle and take us deep into her being: rebellion, guilt, accusation, illegality, hurt. The life cut short by female castration, like fingers and tongues metaphorically cut off. NO. The artist expresses the conflict by transfiguring it, bringing it out into the open, creating beauty. The Letters will be filled with empty spaces, needles, slogans, images, patterns, pearls, children's drawings. Or sometimes they will be painted over in black, just with the heading, with the word painstakingly erased by a veil of night and pain. Repetitive, minimalist images, inspired by reading Kafka's Letters to the father: "In you began all the purity of the world and in me began all the filth...". In a manifesto written in 1995, Elena says: "I sometimes wonder why you are so perverse, and believe me, I myself am very much so, yes, yes, yes,... I AM ALWAYS WAITING FOR YOU. Time passes and I keep waiting for you but yes, I cannot help it: I HATE YOU."

Maria Josep Balsach Peig