“Cenotes” by Chilean Artist Magdalena Atria in Matadero, Madrid

Matadero Madrid opened Cenotes, Chilean artist Magdalena Atria’s site specific intervention on Thursday September 12, at 20:00 hours, in Abierto x Obras, Cenotes is an installation, a perfect example of expanded painting on plasticine, which refers to optical art and psychedelia, a door open to parallel realities.

The intervention has been curated by Carlota Alvarez-Basso and has been developed by students from the Fine Arts Faculty, Madrid’s University.

The artist has named her work with a term that comes from Mayan word dzonot, meaning abyss. The cenotes are sweet-water wells created by the erosion of limestone –soft and porous – described by Mayan people as wonders from other world.

The installation in Abierto x Obras uses the vertical axis of columns to created cenotes that, instead of being full of water, show complex geometries of shinning colors that come out of the surrounding penumbra to open thresholds that connect us to the sphere of the imagination, the mysterious.

Atria’s cenotes are made of plasticine – a humble material, mostly use for school handicrafts. An example of expanded painting that refers to optical art and psychedelia, and transforms the hall into a warm and fantastic space.

Abierto x Obras is the site specific intervention program developed in the former cold-storage room of Legazpi slaughterhouse. The intervention program tries to promote the dialogue between the creators and the main elements of their works. So Magdalena Atria joins the list of artists that have worked in this space, including Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Jordi Colomer, Roman Signer, Jannis Kounellis or Los Carpinteros.

Source: Press release