Back

“En busca de una madre” (Searching for a mother), in La Virreina Centre de la Imatge

A photographic installation by Mille Kalsmose and Alberto García-Alix exploring the nature of identity and personal ties can be seen until the 11th of September

The relationship between a mother and her child occupies a critical physical and mental space in the lives of everyone on the planet, regardless of their cultural customs. Whether it is because of their absence or their presence, mother-child relationships, with all the symbolic significance that they engender from the very first moment, are a basic material for many creators.

With her installation A la recerca d'una mare, Mille Kalsmose, a Danish artist resident in Barcelona, questions the understanding of the concept of identity and how it can be transposed onto oneself or onto a physical space. Many years after her mother’s suicide, Kalsmose is in the process of applying for legal adoption and has asked another woman to fill the role of mother. By means of visual narrative captured by photographer Alberto García-Alix in black and white portraits, the two women bring this new relationship and identity to life by emulating other mothers and daughters and telling the story of a “real-life” relationship.
 
The possibility of creating a new bond between two individuals for whom this bond is not inherent, or “natural”, the ideal construction of family relationships (or the familiar construction of ideal relationships) and the search for happiness with new identitarian characteristics are just some of the questions which are posed to the audience by the Kalsmose and García-Alix installation in la Virreina.
Publication date: Thursday, 20 June 2013
  • Share