“At the koppie top, I didn’t lose my time. When I start building a hut I don’t know if I will finish it before it is dark or cold. Due to this, I needed to find the right place and start looking for stones. There is no day when the mind doesn’t show its weakness. Always, sooner or later, one starts thinking if there is going to be enough material, if it is going to continue to stand, if there is going to be enough time, if it is going to be dangerous, if it is going to be too cold, if one should go back… In these moments, I can feel my vulnerability and the more I feel it, the more I need a solution. All kind of thoughts go through one’s mind, but as they come they need to leave.Since the very first moment you take your backpack, the mind gets quieter and the senses amplify. Every step has another weight and your silence lets you be on alert. Watchful to your own mind processes. And this presence allows you to hold the rocks more decisive when those thoughts come.
It took me around five or six hours to build the hut. Actually it was not finished, but the sunset and the possibility of falling because there were no bigger stones forced me to make a decision. Half of my body wouldn’t be covered. No sleeping bag, no sleeping mat. Just some layers of clothes and blankets. A thin layer between me and the stone floor.
Great night under the sky of the Karoo desert.”
Héctor Hernández [Spain, 1988] lives and works between Spain and Norway.
He holds an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master’s in Art, Creation and Research from the same university. He recently completed a course in Creativity and Strategies in Contemporary Photography, given by Javier Vallhonrat at the EFTI International Centre of Photography and Film.
His artistic practice draws on phenomenological experience with territory to explore the limits of artistic languages to address reality as well as to question our concepts constructed on the basis of our relation with nature. His work tends towards sculpture installation art, intertwined with photography, sound and video, and through emotional, sensorial and poetic approach focuses in the immeasurable and the ineffable, offering a sensory and immersive space.
He has held various national and international solo and collective exhibitions as received various awards and grants in Spain, South Africa, Norway, Netherlands, and Italy.
Exhibition Opening: Thursday April 9th 18.00-20.00,
Further Opening Hours:
Friday 10.04.20: 13.00 to 16.00
Saturday 11.04.20: 13.00 to 16.00
Sunday 12.04.20: 13.00 to 16.00
Free entrance and coffee!