Teresa Solar Abboud: Bird machine dream

The MACBA hosts an exhibition that marks a turning point in the career of Teresa Solar Abboud, one of the most relevant voices of her generation. 'Bird machine dream' is a retrospective that transcends chronological order to offer a dialogue between the established work and the roots of its creative processes. With a strong autobiographical component, the exhibition brings together more than eighty pieces that combine sculptures, drawings, videos and notebooks. Curated by Tania Pardo and Claudia Segura, it consolidates a critical and detailed look at the work of an artist who has reinterpreted contemporary sculptural language.

'Bird machine dream', exhibited at the MACBA until March, is the second chapter of an exhibition triptych that began at the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M) in Madrid with the title 'Machine bird dream' and which will end its tour at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin with the title 'Bird's Dream Machine'. This triptych aims to deepen the artistic universe of Teresa Solar Abboud.

The artist works from matter, form and color to explore concepts such as resistance, connectivity and artifice. His sculptures, often monumental and always figurative, combine organic and industrial elements. The 'Tuneladoras' series, present in the exhibition, exemplifies this hybridization. From raw clay, worked with a wild energy—as she herself describes—she creates structures that evoke heavy machinery and, at the same time, living organisms, with fragments that look like human or animal bodies. These works reflect on human interaction with the earth and how it transforms both the natural world and our collective imagination.

'Over the texas ceramic sky', Teresa Solar Abboud (2017)

The exhibition unites themes and references through a metaphorical deployment. One of the most unique features of Solar Abboud's work is his ability to combine the tangible with the phantasmagorical. Among his references is literature, an area that has also had a profound influence on his work, as shown in the giant whale that occupies room 3 of the MACBA, a clear allusion to Moby Dick. This piece transcends the sculptural form to delve into narratives that oscillate between the scientific, geological and dreamlike worlds. These universes materialize in an aesthetic that plays with intense colors, such as the predominant pink of the exhibition. This color evokes dissected anatomical models, representing an exposed, fragile and open scientific body. For Solar, intense colors are a symbolic tool that allows him to refine and be more precise in what he wants to express with his sculptures.

Drawing, an essential and intimate practice for the artist, is claimed in this exhibition as a key dimension of his creative process. The selected sketches complement the sculptures, but are also presented as independent works, thus establishing a constant dialogue and reinforcing the visual narrative of the exhibition. Also present are his early works in ceramics, which symbolize the impossibility of language, a theme that the artist links to his maternal Egyptian roots and the difficulty he had during his childhood to express himself in Arabic.

Dibuixos 'Forma de fuga: Tuneladora', Teresa Solar Abboud (2020)

The exhibition incorporates audiovisual pieces, which were fundamental in the beginning of his career. The oldest piece in the exhibition, a video from 2009, is the work with which Solar Abboud recognized himself as an artist. Already in this work, issues of scenography and artifice begin to be explored, themes that are strongly reflected in his later sculptural career.

The scenography is a key element in his work, not only within his own pieces but also in the exhibition space. He conceives his creations not as isolated elements, but as parts of a system that dialogues with the architecture of the building. As the artist explains: “When I visit for the first time a space where I will work, I try to understand how it affects me. I think it is likely that my feelings are similar to those of the people who transit and live in this particular space, so I think they can be the best bridge to connect with them”.

The MACBA occupies a special place in Teresa Solar Abboud's career. In 2006, during a visit to the museum, she discovered the work of Janet Cardiff , an experience that deeply inspired her and led her to decide on a career in art. Years later, the MACBA acquired two sculptures from the 'Tunnel Boring Machine' series, presented at the Venice Biennale. This gesture, as pointed out by Elvira Dyangani , current director of the MACBA, already anticipated that an exhibition like this had to arrive sooner or later. Now, with 'Bird machine dream', the MACBA consolidates its commitment to Solar Abboud with an exhibition that she herself describes as a sounding board, a space that has allowed her to reconnect with the artist she was a few years ago and , at the same time, imagine future trajectories.

'Tunnel Boring Machine', Teresa Solar Abboud (2022)