JORGE SATORRE
Mexico City, Mexico, 1979
Received the Fundación Botín Art Grant in 2011

Los Negros (Inscriptions), 2011
Laser engraving on stone
7 plaques: 2 measuring 40 x 60 cm, 3 measuring 30 x 40 cm, and 2 measuring 30 x 20 cm
Gift of the artist, 2011

The work of Jorge Satorre is rooted in research and the collection of historical events, which he reinterprets through the construction of narratives that, while based on specific facts, intertwine fictional and subjective elements. Combining drawing, sculpture, and text, Satorre explores the relationship between the storyteller or image-maker and their audience, highlighting how meaning transforms through the act of interpretation itself. His focus on minimal or seemingly irrelevant details often leads to evocative plots that aim to recover forgotten memories—through which he investigates how ideas, objects, and accounts mutate and migrate over time.

One of his most complex projects, Los Negros was conceived during a visit to Montereale Valcellina, in the Friuli region of Italy, where Domenico Scandella—better known as Menocchio—once lived. A miller in the 16th century, Menocchio was tried and executed for heresy by the Inquisition. He is the central figure of The Cheese and the Worms (1976), a book by historian Carlo Ginzburg. Drawing from this narrative, Satorre speculated on what might have been left out of the historical account. With the help of specialists in the subject, he developed a series of elements that interpret the remnants and stories associated with the place.