THE MAKING OF HOPE (2022, graphite on cardboard, 30 × 42 cm)

Mar Menor
The landscape depicted in this work is a personal vision of the Mar Menor, a coastal lagoon in the Region of Murcia. The environmental catastrophe of the Mar Menor has been —and continues to be— a source of deep concern, debate, and social struggle, not only regionally but also at an international scale. Episodes of anoxia (oxygen depletion) in this saltwater lagoon have caused mass die-offs of fish and crustaceans, and the progressive collapse of its ecosystem.

Sequencing
The composition consists of a series of female figures arranged sequentially, forming a mechanism that repeats itself again and again, like a machine. Set within an apocalyptic landscape, the bodies —liberated from human proportions— surrealistically take the shape of question marks, their heads buried among dead fish on the ground. Only one raises her gaze to the sky, breaking the spiral of searching the earth and directing her question elsewhere. All figures extend one hand upward, palm open.

Hope
Writer Julio Cortázar once said: “Of all our feelings, the only one that is not truly ours is hope. Hope belongs to life; it is life itself defending itself.”

Odd Nerdrum
The work is inspired by Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum, particularly his emblematic piece Dawn, which has been frequently evoked in cinema.

Women as hope
Here, hope is attributed to the feminine realm. Throughout history, women have played a crucial role in struggles for social, political, and other forms of justice. They have generated a global awareness that change is possible and that injustice and inequality can be overcome, uniting their strength. Their capacity for motherhood makes them givers of life, caretakers, and ultimately, the embodiment of hope itself.