One of the most amazing traits of art –and the virtue of artists—is giving space in love. Loving as the act of creating “a moving sea between the shores of our souls” as poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote. These are hard times to be naïf, and yet the need to stay humble, sincere and open as the conditions to safeguard freedom and possibility. We are constantly trapped in our paradoxical longing for intimacy and independence. This is a diamagnetic force — it pulls us toward togetherness and simultaneously repels us from it with a mighty magnet that can rupture a relationship and break a heart. That is why now, exactly now, exhausted and a little bit scared but mostly only anxious it is crucial to give space in love, to be generous, to stay openhearted. It becomes an act of superhuman strength and self-transcendence. Can we do this? We cannot, or not alone. But art can.
A group exhibition is like a family reunion. An opportunity to gather works and individual ways from very different generations, with very different experiences of life, of hardship and of the hope life demands. Why the title? We Belong To Each Other? The highest task of a bond between people is to stand guard over the solitude of each other. To defy antagonism and indifference is probably the biggest task of our social futures. Continually providing opportunities to each other; rhythmically interrupt each other’s periods of feeling sad or lonely or irrelevant. The artists presented in this exhibition do not know each other, or ever worked together and yet they all believe that our need for togetherness exists alongside our need for separateness and it is art the force that helps to find happiness in union. Human beings infinite distances continue to exist and yet art creates ways where living side by side can grow. Learning how to neighbor; learning to better understand cheerfulness and joy. That’s what this exhibition is all about.
– Chus Martínez
