From October 17 to November 16, 2020

The work of Spanish goldsmith artist Lluís Comín is always characterized by the deep personal meditation that always accompanies him, but the exhibition “Reflections from Silence” that opens on Saturday 17th October at Thereza Pedrosa Gallery in Asolo is absolutely one of the most introspective projects of the author, who has developed it in two collections: “The Magic Montain” and “Vestiges”.

“The Magic Montain” explores his relationship with nature and, specifically, his love for the solitude of the mountain: “The snow’s deep silence, the intense blue sky or the raging stormy wind make one believe in the gods and provoke that one comes back again and again to this sacred temple where friendship becomes a kind of religion. The mountain is the place where the senses and emotions become sharper, where a parenthesis of memories opens up and where time is relative and freedom absolute”.

The new “Vestiges” collection, on the other hand, is an introspective journey that began during the long period of lockdown, in which the artist reflects on the present and future of humanity as a species. The artist himself recounts his thoughts:

“We Homo sapiens tend to believe that we are living the best moment in the history of our species. But… does our evolution make any sense? Where does the technical revolution lead us to? Are we really aiming at achieving “happiness”? We usually think that the way we face life is superior to the way of those that preceded us. And taking into account that our “advanced” societies’ lifestyle and financial welfare are higher than the previous ones, I really ask myself if we are improving as a species.
We believe to be morally superior. But why are, for example our current female canons of beauty better than the ones at the time when Rubens painted “The Three Graces”? If we would look at our current civilization from a future point of view, we would surely find weird aspects in it – maybe even absurd ones. Many of these aspects might now be considered as “truth”.
Years ago a master of mine told me something that’s been very useful to me: the word “moral” is originally Latin (mos, moris..) which means “habit”. Our certainties are therefore totally relative and context-bound. As time goes by, we will only be vestiges of a moment in history – the same as triolobites and Roman mosaics once were.
So, unless we are able to be less arrogant and unless we really start caring about the others and the environment, our attitude could lead to the end of our species. Maybe… in the future someone will dig up one of my jewels… and will say in a foreign language: “Vestiges of the XXI century”. This will surely happen if we haven’t become extinct.