10 december, 2020 – 7 march, 2021
Rooms 4 & 5. First floor
Matria is the result of a long research process that arose from her work “Et in Arcadia Ego” (2016-2020), a memento mori que reminds us that death also exists in the bucolic paradise. Starting from this polarity of life and death, Reina D’HOORE explores her own paradise and her maternal Galician roots. She is interested in what is on the verge of disappearing, like one of the last children in the woods, in reference to the writer and journalist Richard Louv. In her walks, she collects vegetable or animal waste that has fulfilled its vital cycle in its natural environment. As if it were treasure… in a world that has turned its back on the environmental emergency.
The initial idea was developed by researching the death of Kübler Ross (doctor), among others, studying anthropological texts on death in different cultures and observing nature in her daily walks, which led her to question the values of today’s society. Just like Thoreau in Walden (writer and philosopher).
Also by travelling and observing other cultures, becoming aware of the disconnection between tangible and intangible heritage in her homeland, Galicia. Questioning what is valuable, since all that glitters is not gold. And nevertheless, gold symbolises light, the spiritual, not only material wealth… something that seems to have been forgotten today.
Researching this Galician heritage links her to the summers she spent as a child in Galicia in contact with nature, in the Ría of Muros and Noia and in Abella, her grandfather’s village, as well as to the myths and legends he told her and fascination with “rocks.” Especially in contrast to Brussels, the city where she grew up. And this led to her exploring her origins, her roots. She became interested, above all, in the myth of the Moura, a foundational myth of Galicia, the Mother Goddess, the maker of landscapes, the girl, the mother, the old woman, the creator of landscapes, at the Land’s End of our ancestors, the entrance to the other world. Highlighting the value of this myth and the heritage associated with the legend of the Mouros, the importance of their treasures that date from the first great human revolution, the arrival of agriculture. A trip to the end of the ancient world, that of the “mouros,” to our collective unconscious as Galician women.
Therefore, this project, which deals with death from different perspectives, cannot overlook life.
From a material point of view, she begins her work by collecting bones and natural waste and adding value to them, as was done in ancient times with grave goods. Applying gilding, the gold that is so important in our legends and also reminding us about how we take care of our roots, reminding us of our green blindness….
After finding a pelvis, she investigates the origins of the word, its relationship with amphoras and maternity, and she also researches the origins of art, its capacity for bringing humans together.
This work was frustrated to a certain extent by the confinement. Once she was able to go out again, she continued to feel an urge to collect, to reveal what few are able to see, making the most of dawn, this space of time and liminal light when the drawings made by our ancestors are revealed. Liminal or threshold spaces that are so important in mythology. Like a game… and a rebirth. Recognising the value of our land, of our heritage.
It is also a reflection on how neoliberal, patriarchal society abuses nature and the most vulnerable ones. By means of her work, she calls for a paradigmatic change enabling us to return to the origins of our civilisation, to re-establish our connection with nature, with desire, with emotional colours, with an intimate discourse, with the very limits as well as a vision that transcends borders and contributes a commitment and an educational discourse that is sometimes ground-breaking…
All of these proposals are enriched with different media, such as frottage, drawing, sculpture, in order to offer an interdisciplinary vision of a “rotating” art.
Thanks to Luis, Diana, Puri, Santi, Tammara, Mónica for helping with this exhibition and to the Granell Foundation and its team for all of their help.
Reina D´Hoore was born in Brussels. In the years 1996-97, she received training in the plastic arts from Jean-Claude Garoute (Tiga, founder of the Saint-Soleil Movement), Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She moved to Santiago in 1998 and trained in theatrical performance and contemporary dance at “Espazo Aberto,” in “Sala Galán”, etc.
Her plastic work has been exhibited in Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Ferrol, Valencia, Burgos, Punta de Couso, A Coruña, Brussels and Haiti.
Since 2002, she has imparted creativity workshops in the Eugenio Granell Foundation, the Centre of European Culture, the “Porta do Camiño” old people’s home, Ames Town Council, Pontevedra, Punta de Couso, A Coruña, Barcelona, Burgos and Brussels.
From 2007 to 2010, she ran and organised the “Roteiro de Creación” in the city of Santiago, a cultural project featuring the participation of more than 100 creators in its fourth year.
She coordinated the catalogue of Compostela artists entitled “Latexos artísticos da cidade de Santiago de Compostela” in 2008. Her work has been published in “100 mulleres galegas, artistas emergentes” and “Botella ao Mar.”
