ENRIC TORMO. MONTESA. SPAIN. AUGUST 2008

In the beginning of the third trimester of 2008 it is possible to start making an analysis of what has characterized these last 12 months. Among what happened and as far as our arguments are concerned, we are going to focus on two major facts: the Olympic Games held in the exotic China and the economic crisis where we are immersed.

As it seems, both the facts are linked. The Chinese had definitively and unilaterally decided to abandon a diet on rice, eating at least twice a day. Thus, the best way of doing it was to directly enter this global world. The one which is unique, uniform, organised, technically developed and, above all, safe. In spite of all security, it is annoying, also irrelevant, looking alike, suffocating and self-evident. To reach this, they applied a formula they already knew because they had used it before: sports. The only human activity which, theoretically, is non-political, non lucrative, promotes equality … democracy, basically because there are neither winners nor losers, only participants.

Some ears ago, during the cold war, to break the existing ice in the relations between the United States of America and the communist China, a series of “ping-pong” meetings were organised (purists call it “table tennis”). The allegory and/or metaphor hasn’t stopped surprising me since then. It consists of a small ball that goes and comes on a green table of small dimensions. At that time it was only a matter of softening some rough corners, but actually it was a large-scale event and, therefore, it also had to be much more sophisticated. They took Beijing to Zeus Tonante and to all his companions of the Olympus. Surely, trying to emulate Hesiod and intended to create a Pantheon with new Gods.

We want to oppose a third fact to this reality, which was much less commented and announced, however not less transcendent. Rute Rosas makes an exhibition in a small Village on of the north of Portugal, namely in Vila Nova de Cerveira. It is an old village of Celtic tradition, situated on the banks of the Minho river. Its location converts it into an enclave linking North and South, though separated by the politics, joined by the conscience, where there is a constant flow of water, people, ideas, desires and illusions. Definitively, it is a door that opens to insufflate new air. It is as a resistance nucleus, alternative to these new trends that claim the only thought.

This makes us think of another small village on the north of Galia, which, thanks to a magic potion, resisted and will resist forever… It is up to us to remember that, and according to the historic records, they have also won the Olympic Games in which they participated.
Well, Rute is over there. However… she is neither Asterix; nor Obelix. Perhaps she may have something of Panoramix, the druid. No, she is none of them, nevertheless, in her daily dwelling she has something, the best of each one. From Asterix she has the agility and intelligence, the strategy and the wit. From Obelix, she has the simplicity based on the obvious and on his love for Idefix, in her case for Fugi. From Panoramix, she has a tuning with the environment, a reference to the natural, a capacity of creation, better than that, a capacity of creating by means of a constant transformation. Perhaps, being a woman helps in this reality. The creative capacity and the serenity of her creation offer to Rute a mysterious possibility of full introspection. We would say that Eleusis is alive.

This is what we can see, that is, feel, in this exhibition. It presents the long way of the work that, in distinct stages, has been the vital reason of the author. Facing such situation and because we are orthodox, we would have to find some objective which would define and characterise the quality of the exhibited proposal. As it is composed of a series, which relates to previous creative stages, we should be facing something we know as “an anthology, a retrospect, a biography”,… however, it is not the case.

We cannot conceive it as an anthology, as in it we find neither the previous stretches nor notes, not even an evolution line; neither it is an inert, inanimate compendium of reference. Nor it is a retrospective exhibition, we are not on the top of a hill, necessary and privileged, from where we can glimpse a passage with its wavy ways and its ups and downs. In no case it is a biographical exhibition for it lacks many elements, references and nuances to synthesize a life. Then, what are we facing?

We are facing an essence, a flow, her “magical position”. A prescription from where the different components of the mixture are disclosing.

A magical potion, that takes as central and nuclear reference the body itself. It is a constant reference to existence and to feeling. Let us say, the sum of living. This body is also the reference of the resources, the desires, the illusions, of what could have been and that never will be, because, definitively, the senses establish the relation to the exterior. It is interactive; it is the way from which the expansion is established, taking as centre a simple umbilicus, which is a materialised umbilicus, as other anatomic parts. A body that was hugged, sewn, mutilated, displayed, washed…

We face a selective sample of her work, her techniques, but also and uniquely a sample of her way of feeling. It has a concept of transformation, of evolution, an overcoming of feelings and states, not in their extension but in their essence. It clearly wants to be a synthesis; that is, a selection and organisation of contents that, no doubt, display the closing up of a phase, perhaps of youth, in order to be able to face a new process of expansion.

So far Rute had established a narrow relationship between experience, action, reaction and work, our Obelix in his best. However, a recent alteration has been produced. There has been an awareness of the existence of something which is above the work itself, above what induces us and takes us to a place, to a goal. A destination? In the classic sense (Olympic) of the word. Our existence and the existence of the author herself go beyond, drawing a foreseen future of fullness, Asterix, but always helped and complemented by the “natura naturans”, Panomarix.

The consolidation of some personal and emotional parameters is clear. As, definitively, any process of selection of experiences is connected to a complex net of ethical and moral principles and to the creation of an evaluative and controlling context of everything which is and was in itself. Thus, it is established a reference point that imposes a self criticism process of expressive limitation. This, even though it may seem a paradox, it is clearly a symptom of freedom and of creative capacity. Self control means the use of a purified surgical tool that allows the improvement of contents, forms and means.

We notice we are facing this disruption by the change of category of the subject. Now we are facing the breath, the opposite of the asphyxia. I believe that the evidence is such that is not necessary to consider the implications. We cannot forget that breathing is the first act of autonomous life of all newborns. It is a painful act that initiates the penitence of life, of this long passage that will finish when one expires, when one exhales the last breath. Life, definitively, is only about breathing in and out.

However, the rhythm of the life also conjugates with the cadence of the breath, this exchange between the interior and the exterior. There is time for quietness, a word that can only very slowly be pronounced, perfectly measuring the expulsion of air, but there are also moments for hectic, where the violence of the air expulsion marks the tension just by itself. This implies dynamism and a swing movement and, logically, a heating and constant cooling of the ways where it passes through.

It is, definitely the aspect that lacked Rute’s trajectory. So far, her proposals have only been steady and static exhibitions; inside a space that we should go through. All her formulations were material, tangible, objective, real,… now it is only movement and as such, only suggested, indicated and only designated. Eolo is the only God who manifests itself by its movement. Eolo is not seen, is not touched, it is felt. It is intangible and it is the only one that, with its holy blow, can take man from the maximum of his well-being to madness or suicide.

Facing this, one would say the author wants to take a breath, animus, to search this instant of rest. To fill the lungs anew and to restart the career that leads her to destination she has promised herself, and as Flipsides, he may arrive at Athena’s feet, goddess of wisdom, strategy and war, to proclaim in loud voice “Nike” (victory). We fought and we won the gregarious troops of the great empires.