Todo en todo por todos lados todo el tiempo by Ale de la Puente: Curated by Michel Blancsubé at Main Room

“Tout est dans tout partout tout le temps”
— Marguerite Duras, Le camion (1977)

The artificial separation between science and art has lived, if it ever made sense. There are more and more programs that associate scientists and artists. Ale de la Puente carried out several residencies in the scientific field, of which I highlight her collaboration with CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) in Geneva in October 2016 and her month of navigation five years later in the Sea of Cortez on the oceanogra- phic research RV FALKOR ship. She dealt with astrophysicists and mathematicians throughout her career, but also with carpenters, composers, writers, blacksmiths, philosophers, mezcaleros, gardeners, musicians, and poets to name a few of her most relevant complicities. We live in a strange time that calls more than ever for dialogue, exchange and sharing. Taking what we have in common as a starting point to wait for some epiphany seems to be the most appropriate and when what happens on the surface of the planet bothers us too much, it is left to escape un- derground, underwater or simply look up at the sky, not to get lost but rather to find and locate ourselves.

When we approach topics related to the universe, we quickly find the inalienable partner of space: time. We all have in mind this miracle that allows us to perceive in the present something that actually ceased to exist. I want to talk about certain stars from which we see the light even if it is extinguished at the instant of our vision: the star died during the long time that this light needed to reach us. Time and space are very enig- matic conventions against which one must be prudent. Gordon Matta-Clark, a “hero” of contemporary art from the 1970s, said he did not know “what the word ‘space’ means. I keep using it. But I’m not sure what it means.” (Interview with Judith Russi Kirshner, Chicago, February 13, 1978). Ale de la Puente could anachronistically reply to Matta-Clark that “the uncertainty of space takes hold in doubt by simply navigating in time.” (feet in the water and gaze at the stars waiting for lightning, Turner Editorial, 2018, p. 83)

Twenty-five works produced between 2010 and 2023 will be brought together in a fragmented volume to evoke our planet and this enigmatic cosmos full of constellations, galaxies, black holes, meteorites, stars and solar systems: records of phenomena and events, graphs of celestial movements, artifacts that invoke the magnetism that surrounds us, without forgetting the faithful presence of a satellite, silent witness of a small blue planet, fragile top in revolution, infinitely in revolution.

— Michel Blancsubé