6
Cristina Stolhe and Andrés Izquierdo conjure up a dialogue that communicates with the past and resonates into the future
(October – November 2024)
Exhibition presented at La Carpintería, Ibiza
This exhibition was the result of the communion created by the artists’ journey, which became a shared endeavour. The images emerging from this pilgrimage were created on foot, without a fixed direction, discovering elements that later acquired extraordinary significance: bones found in an illegal dump, first photographed and later incorporated into the sculptures; flowers offered by Cristina at the cemetery of Formentera and later collected by Andrés to be included in his works; a cave reflected both in the colour of the clay and in the shadows superimposed within a snapshot; and ruins and remote landscapes far from mass tourism, revealing the layered reality of a place once inhabited by Phoenicians, Punics, Romans, and Arabs.
Cristina’s work captured nearly non-existent moments that seemed to vanish the instant they were observed — bearing witness to different ways of inhabiting time. Her photographic language was marked by a pictorial sensibility, intensified through an obsession with texture. Through an attention to detail and the transformation of objects into landscapes, she obscured what was seen by rarefying the obvious. This way of seeing was aligned with her exploration of the island, where traces of the past remained present but subtly — almost imperceptibly — disguised as the present.
A sense of anachronism was also reflected in the contrast between both practices: the immediacy and technology of Cristina’s photography served as a counterpoint and balance to Andrés’ works. His sculptural pieces were an account of sculpture’s alchemical — yet extractivist — nature: clay collected by hand in the mountains, pine resin, bones, oil. His sculptures explored transcendence through movement, between what rose toward the sky — what was released — and what sank into the earth — what was returned. Andrés captured this tension between seemingly opposing forces, articulating an experience of Ibiza that transcended the purely corporeal.
Together, Cristina and Andrés conjured a dialogue that communicated with the past and resonated into the future. Through their eyes, Ibiza became a prophetic and almost delirious space, where light and darkness coexisted in a fragile and powerful balance.
Artists
Andrés Izquierdo
FIGUERETES 2022, 6
Andrés Izquierdo (Madrid, 1993) draws on psychoanalysis and allegory to explore themes of childhood, grief, and the restorative qualities of space and objects. Working across a wide range of media—including mobile sculptures, furniture design, figurative ceramics, marker-pen drawings, and architectural installations—his practice is driven by juxtapositions of anarchic yet structured conditions: earth and sky, biology and theology, emergence and dissolution. Fascinated by what is—and at the same time isn’t—Izquierdo interweaves physical presence (landscape, cosmology, and phenomena) with conscious contemplation, expressed through intrusive thoughts, daydreams, and bodily sentiments.
Residency: 6 — Figueretes 22
Cristina Stolhe
6
“Today I take photos, tomorrow who knows.”
In her work, Cristina Stolhe (Pontevedra, ES, 1993) examines the experience of daily life through photography. Using analogue and digital cameras—and especially her mobile phone camera—she explores the essence of life while also speculating with what is present, asking “what’s there?” and imbuing her images with emotions that may not be immediately apparent. Her scenes evoke nostalgia and a sense of intimacy and family feeling, while also capturing the present moment through a slow, voyeuristic lens. Stolhe’s practice attempts to appreciate fleeting instants and preserve them, inviting us to reflect on how personal experiences and memories shape our lives and identities.
In 2018, her first book Random Pictures Book was published by Terranova as a tribute to mobile phone photography, exploring today’s overconsumption of images.
Residency: 6
Site: @xtinastolhe
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