Inquieta /Restless

Exhibition at Galeria Moises Perez de Albeniz, Madrid of Inquieta /Restless, 2018, video installation and related photographic works

Selected Works were :

Trees near Alfacar. 2018. 108 x 161 x 4 cm. Framed pigment print on aluminium.
Fallen moon (2 versions) 2018. 108 x 161 x 4 cm. Framed pigment print on aluminium.
Excavation (2 versions) 2018. 34,5 x 51 x 4 cm. Framed pigment print on aluminium.
Aynadamar, The Fountain of Tears (I). 2018. 108 x 161 x 4 cm. Framed pigment print on aluminium.
Aynadamar, The Fountain of Tears (II). 2018. 108 x 161 x 4 cm. Framed pigment print on aluminium.
Between Viznar and Alfacar. 2018. 108 x 161 x 4 cm. Framed pigment print on aluminium.


In August 1936 the poet Federico García Lorca, among others, was shot and secretly buried at some point on the road that connects the towns of Víznar and Alfacar, near Granada. Taking this event as a reference, Willie Doherty made a series of visits to these two towns between 2016 and 2018.

In Room 1 the artist showed a series of photographs taken between Víznar and Alfacar. Excavation (2016) has been carried out in the Peñon del Colorado where a failed attempt was made to recover the remains of Lorca in 2016. Fallen Moon (2018) was carried out in El Barranco de Víznar, a mountainous land where many of the corpses, victims of a brutal execution system directed from Víznar, they were buried and to this day they have not yet been located.

Aynadamar (I) and (II) were made in Fuente Grande in Alfacar. Lorca was killed and, ironically, it is believed that he was buried not far from this pond, formed by a spring in which you can see small bubbles that rise slowly from the bottom to the surface in the form of tears, making it a place with strong poetic associations. The Muslims called it Aynadamar, "Fountain of Tears", and the Islamic poets of Granada talked about the beauty of the surroundings of the pond. This teardrop-shaped pond continues to supply a channel that was created in the 11th century and continues to flow through the landscape as far as Víznar, and in the lower part towards the city of Granada.

In Room 2 the artist presented Inquieta (2018) a video piece based on a text with an original score by composer Brian Irvine. The work consists of a sequence of words and phrases that appear in white on a black screen. Restless tries to give voice to one of the many unrecognized victims of the Spanish Civil War, whose bodies have never been found. The work renounces all kinds of imagery of the landscape or the human figure in favor of the simplicity of the text. The projected words emerge from the darkness of the gallery and for an instant can be seen floating on the screen before dissipating. The work conveys a sense of loss, of the change of season, and of the passage of time.