SARA RAMO
Madrid, Spain, 1975
Received the Fundación Botín Art Grant in 2014

Hendija, 2019
False column, real column, costume jewellery and putty
Acquired in 2020

In Hendija, Sara quite literally opens a crack in the wall, which she then clogs with a mass of cheap, gaudy jewellery. At first glance, the intervention may appear to address a structural flaw in the exhibition space, yet it can also be read as a disturbing kind of ornament—evocative of plaster mouldings or other decorative elements typical of classical architecture.

In this sense, the work might be interpreted as a “wound” or rupture in the architectural integrity of a building that typifies modernity. At the same time, the intervention could be seen as the unintended revelation of a hidden part of the building’s structure. Either way, there is something antithetical and deliberately out of place in this juxtaposition.