Elena del Rivero. Transiting “La Quema”

Elena del Rivero is the artist invited to participate in the project Extramurs [Extramural], 2025, curated by Mateo Feijóo. This project is the result of intense collaborative research and production focused on the burning of her early works as an act of healing. Thus, this edition explores the connections between historical and personal memory, intercity narratives in dialogue with the surroundings and contemporary artistic practices, highlighting, once again, the potential of art as a vehicle for critical reflection and social change.

Transiting “La Quema” is based on an initial action, La Quema [The Burning], carried out in the Galician region of A Baixa Límia, as part of an initiative of A Casa do Pozo. The process was documented through images and sound recordings that have played a key role in shaping the current project. The pieces were burnt in October 2024, after being exhibited in various homes and spaces in the village. This action explores themes such as symbolic destruction, purification and renewal, as elements linked through dialogue with the urban and architectural spaces that will be intervened in Barcelona.

The installations created by Del Rivero as part of the Extramurs project, in collaboration with students from EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona, will be exhibited both inside and outside the Museu Tàpies, in Centre d’Art La Capella, in Basílica Santa Maria del Pi, in the Teatre Grec gardens, in Galeria Senda and Loop Barcelona. The exhibition includes photographs, collages, objects and an illuminated sign. The cartography of these intervened spaces will invite us to reflect on the resilience of human and social structures, as well as on the dialogue between the past and the present, revealing the tensions and continuities that define the history of the construction of contemporary cities.

Transiting “La Quema” public programme includes the concert for church bells L’espai alliberat [Liberated Space] by Llorenç Barber, in collaboration with students from Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona, Fundació Conservatori del Liceu, Escola de Música l’Antàrtida de Barcelona, Escola Municipal de les Arts de Santa Perpètua de la Mogoda and the musical band La Valenciana, and the support of ESMUC. The concert, set to take place on 8 July at 7.30 pm as part of the Grec Festival, is the project’s inaugural event. In addition, Loop Festival will feature a newly created documentary about La Quema, directed by  Improfilms, co-producers with A Casa do Pozo and The Paraclete.