The Bòlit_StNicolau presents "More place for the dark. An ecocritical reading of Solitude"

Bòlit_StNicolau opens the exhibition More place for the dark on May 12, at 7 p.m. An ecocritical reading of Solitude that brings together works by Maddi Barber, Pilar Codony, Mireia Coromina, Alba G. Corral, Alba Lombardía and Carles Viarnès.

The exhibition, curated by Elvira Prado-Fabregat, reflects the tension of a desperate struggle to redefine the story of nature. This exhibition proposes an ecocritical reading of the novel and establishes a dialogue between the mythical, literary and visual universe created by Víctor Català/Caterina Albert and contemporary artists from different disciplines. In addition to exploring other aspects of nature in Solitud, part of the content of the exhibition focuses on the Gothic imagination linked to folklore and the idea of the sublime - the wildest nature -, from which the author questions the "old ideas" that entangle the subalternities of women and nature. For Caterina Albert, fictional research was a vital axis.

And there is no other fiction more engulfing, more unattainable, than that of nature. We have tried to explain it through myths and scientific hypotheses, which we have tirelessly reviewed and deconstructed. We have devoted centuries of analytical and synthetic efforts to it. But the (rest of) nature always ends up rebelling against our discoveries. We dare to decipher it - to translate what allows us into figures -, to recreate it, to arbitrate it, but a kind of cosmic slyness falls upon us. It often ends up contradicting us yet again. We also don't quite know what to make of this handful of figures. In the end, the verb always wins. The story that links formulas and hypotheses, more or less (imp)robable facts and fantasy. We are physics. We are chemistry. We are biology. We are measurable, X-rayable matter, but if there is a force that has the ability to end up overturning – even if temporarily – "reality" is fantasy.

More place for the dark is part of a transversal project of research and creation and is a co-production of Bòlit, Center for Contemporary Art. Girona, the Rural Life Museum and the Escala Museum. A few days ago the stage version premiered at the Teatre Municipal de Girona and soon an essay will collect the theoretical reflections and the creative processes.

The exhibition proposes an ecocritical reading of the novel, that is to say, reviews it from the point of view of the cultural construction of nature - a complex concept full of contradictions - and establishes a dialogue between the mythical, literary universe and visual, created by Víctor Català/Caterina Albert and different contemporary artists from different disciplines.