A SQUARE IN THE FOREST
“A Square in the Forest”
Diana Orving, Raúl Illarramendi Curated by Domenico de Chirico THA HOUSE, Madrid
THA HOUSE is pleased to announce the two-person exhibition “A Square in the Forest”, featuring works by Raúl Illarramendi and Diana Orving, curated by Domenico de Chirico.
In an era profoundly marked by the increasingly pressing phenomenon of the Anthropocene, in which humanity has exerted and continues to exert a decisive influence on the planet’s ecosystems, swallowed up by the clamor that characterizes contemporary society—marked by the spectacularization of relationships and experiences and devoid of any form of intimacy, as noted by the French intellectual Guy Debord in his essay The Society of the Spectacle (1967)—the exhibition “A Square in the Forest” instead invites us to a deep reflection on the concepts of space, relationship, and transformation. The phenomenon of the Anthropocene, characterized by the growing interaction between human ambition and nature’s pushback, raises crucial questions regarding our impact on the world, its future, and our capacity for adaptation and change. The exhibition’s title evokes a paradox between the illuminated architectural order of a square and the dark, sometimes opalescent nature of a forest—wild and unpredictable—when kissed by the sun. It suggests the tension between what is structured and what is uncontrolled, between the known and the unknown, between the rational and the primordial. Gathered here, the works of Raúl Illarramendi and Diana Orving, despite coming from different contexts and languages, intertwine harmoniously, creating a deep, cohesive, and uninterrupted dialogue. Illarramendi, with his works that seem to emerge from an intangible and futuristic place, where matter and space are in constant flux, creates imaginative scenarios that, while strongly connected to the surrounding reality, reveal a dimension beyond the surface, where the immaterial and the tangible blend inseparably, giving life to a poetic embrace. Diana Orving, for her part, with her unique ability to connect dance, sculpture, and performance, challenges the static nature of form, creating physical and mental spaces that not only occupy space but modify it and alter its perception. Her works invite the viewer to undertake a broader reflection on the body, movement, and transformation, questioning the rigidity of conventions and offering a vision in which art becomes an instrument of continuous change.
Raúl Illarramendi (born in 1982 in Caracas, Venezuela, and currently residing in Méru, France) has developed an artistic language centered on the observation and interpretation of traces left by human activity in the everyday urban environment. His works emerge from the observation of surfaces such as walls, sidewalks, gates, and doors, where the scars of time—scratches, layers of dirt, accumulations of graffiti, and anonymous scribbles—become the subject of visual reflection. Illarramendi selects these traces for their evocative power and composition, using them as a source of inspiration for his works. His creative process employs a mixed technique that combines colored pencil and gouache on canvas, merging drawing and painting and vice versa. His compositions are conceived as “non-drawings,” where sudden lines emerge from unmarked spaces, revealing the underlying canvas. This approach challenges traditional conventions, as drawing appears not as a definitive act but as a constantly evolving trace, a process of repeated accumulation that creates a new surface. Illarramendi defines this series of works as “Evidence of Absence”, in which the absence of matter—the unmarked part of the canvas—is what allows the trace itself to exist and endure. In his work, he explores the metaphor of the imprint, which he considers one of the most elementary forms of human expression.
Fingerprints, in particular, play a central role, evoking a connection with primal instinct and the tradition of artists like Ana Mendieta, Cy Twombly, Giuseppe Penone, and Walead Beshty, who have generously used this gesture in their works for different reasons.
Diana Orving (a Swedish artist born in 1985, currently residing in Stockholm) explores in her work the ever-changing form, where fabrics become containers of movement, memory, and transformation. Her sculptures express a constant tension: they expand, contract, collapse, and reveal themselves, appearing at once fragile and powerful. Orving builds structures that seem to breathe, like bodies suspended between stability and dissolution, where every fold and seam tells a story of resistance and desire. The central element of her work is fabric, which is not just a material but a skin, a refuge, a vessel of vital momentum and invisible energies that manifest through the use of drapes, folds, and tensions. The artist treats fabrics as breathing entities, manipulating them with an approach that reflects an intimate choreography—a dance that reveals relationships, conflicts, fears, and desires. The seams, made both by hand and machine, flow like elastic and living lines, resembling veins or tree branches. In each of her works, the geographic and choreographic vision becomes the common thread that intertwines movement, emotion, and thought, highlighting the interconnectedness of individuals and their contexts, challenging the idea of isolation. Her sculptures are never static; in their adaptability, they seem to be caught in the midst of movement, frozen in time as if they were part of a continuous flow. Additionally, transparency is another recurring theme in Orving’s work, adding an extra dimension to her pieces. The exterior and interior of the form are both crucial, as are the shadows that emerge on the walls during installation. Orving’s sculptures, floating between the organic and the architectural, are soft yet imposing, evoking images of skeletal remains, veils of memory, or landscapes shaped by invisible hands. These forms require physical proximity, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves, explore the folds, and perceive the silent energy residing within the seams.
In light of all this, the exhibition “A Square in the Forest” presents itself as an immersive invitation to explore the dialectic between order and chaos, stability and change, through the visual language—dissimilar yet complementary—of two artists who, while remaining anchored in the present and deeply concerned for the future, push us to reflect on our role in the environment, the impact we have on the reality around us, and the responsibility tied to the traces we leave behind on our path. In an era that demands constant transformation, art continually offers a space to explore, understand, and, hopefully, change, correcting and improving our journey toward a better future. In this liminal state that marks the boundary between the natural and the anthropized, between the mysterious and the ordinary, at a time when certainties seem to be progressively fading and every aspect of our daily lives constantly requires reconfiguration, the exhibition presents itself as a heartfelt act of exploration and rediscovery— a visual and emotional experience that leaves the audience suspended, as if awaiting a fateful revelation.