Antonio Ballester Moreno: Sky and Earth | CA2M, Madrid

Once again, the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo invites an artist to develop an exhibition based on a reading of the museum’s collections and those of the Fundación ARCO. On this occasion, Antonio Ballester Moreno (Madrid, 1977) also takes on the role of curator and presents the exhibition , a proposal that seeks to connect the exterior with the interior while exploring how landscape—as an artistic genre—has historically been understood as a construct that transcends the aesthetic, incorporating geological, anthropological, and social dimensions.

 

Introducing a landscape into an interior space through scenography is not only an artistic practice, but also a metaphor that reflects the profound influence of the environment on our physical and political experience. This exhibition seeks to connect the exterior with the interior, exploring how landscape—as an artistic genre—has historically been understood as a construct that transcends the aesthetic and encompasses geological, anthropological and social dimensions.

 

With this aim, the show fosters a dialogue between the work of the artist Antonio Ballester Moreno—created in collaboration with families and students from the Federico García Lorca primary school in Móstoles—and 29 works by other artists from the collection of the Museo CA2M. Ballester Moreno thus continues to explore his interest in art as an educational tool, generating an encounter between two seemingly disparate perspectives that are nevertheless united by a common thread: creation and creativity.

 

The result is a setting that combines amateur productions made with humble materials, such as cardboard, with works by established artists. This strange and tense landscape invites viewers to wander through a space where high and low, sky and earth, day and night merge, generating a visual and conceptual experience that challenges museum conventions.

The aim, to paraphrase John Dewey, is to “restore the continuity between the aesthetic experience and the natural processes of life, and break with dualistic concepts such as high art versus popular art, the aesthetic versus the practical, and the artist versus 'ordinary' people”. 

 

This exhibition suggests—and aims to make us think—that we are all, without exception, creative, and that the goal of all creation is not to attain the pure truth of knowledge, but to enhance the experience itself.  Because seeing all things connected (and united) is always more enriching and satisfying.