Bernardo Ortiz's exhibition and

Bernardo Ortiz’s solo show at Casas Riegner presents an exploration of the material and discursive possibilities of paper. Using different formal operations, including drilling, repetition of light painting layers, or subtle traces of graphite, the artist seeks for the links between matter, image, and concept. Bernardo Ortiz’s artwork delved into the act of drawing, considering it as the act of dragging something that leaves a trace. His works invite the spectator to come closer and observe the subtleties of his process, prompting deep reflections on the passage of time and the physical actions associated with drawing. The image, a result of technical and material solutions - like a text made of layers - is visible in drawings, installations, and interventions. Similarly, the exhibition aims to highlight the literary and conceptual components of Ortiz’s material interventions.

"In his book 'Plant Memory,' the writer Umberto Eco discusses the birth of a type of memory, which he named 'vegetable.' In Eco's words: '...although the parchment was made with animal skin, the papyrus was plant-origin and, with the arrival of paper (from the twelfth century), books are produced with linen rags, hemp, and cloth; finally, the etymology of both biblos and liber refers to the bark of the tree.' Before the invention of printing, plant memory or books were roll-shaped. They slowly transformed into the objects we know today.

Regardless of its form, the book enabled the personalization of writing by containing a personal perspective of a memory fragment, or even of a collective memory. The act of reading then became a dialogue with someone and their body, though they are not physically present in front of us, with an individual perspective that leads us to try to understand a thought, an intention.

The exhibition 'Memoria Vegetal,' inspired by Eco’s particular look at the history of books and bibliophilia, brings together works in various formats and media that use the book as a support, or which are based on the experience of reading a particular text. The works placed in the exhibition space not only display new thoughts and interpretations of those books or readings on which they are supported, but they also become body and emotional catalysts.