María José Arjona. Tro

Thunder is a performative, sculptural and sound event that addresses cracks as forms produced by the interaction of bodies, forces and materials. Rather than understanding the crack as evidence of rupture, in this work it is posited as a third space, an aperture that might allow us to view an interiority that had previously remained contained.

Two bodies are placed on either end of a black wall, with two light sources inside of it. Through a series of impacts, both bodies transfer force and vibration onto the structure, producing sound while gradually modifying the wall’s materiality. The wall works simultaneously as a surface of resistance and a sounding board, acoustically broadening the encounter between bodies and material.

The purpose of the action is not to tear the wall down. The blows continue until a crack appears that is large enough for the light within to break out of the structure and enter into the space. Like thunder and lightning—sound and light emitted from the same discharge—the sound and light appearing here are expressions of a power relationship.

The crack transforms the condition of the wall without making it disappear. When the action ends, the structure stays in the space as a sculptural piece: a modified form that conserves the material evidence of the blows, revealing what until then had been contained within.

Thunder is a proposal by María José Arjona, accompanied by Camilo Acosta, as part of the third edition of the series The Chairs of Tàpies: Invoking the Gap.