“The Illustrated Forest” is the exhibition proposal by the artist Aixa Portero for the Monastery of San Juan, Burgos, Spain. Held from October to 2022 and curated by Mª Victoria Arribas Roldán, the exhibition, which takes place within the framework of LIBRARTE (Artists’ Book Fair of Castilla y León) is an invitation to wander through a forest of books, not only because of the large installation of books hanging in the central nave of the church (The Roots of Flight) which presents us, like a forest, with books ajar, at different heights, and whose letters rest on the floor. But also, in a certain way, in the vestibule before the cloister, the LibrEs Plumas (feather-books) and the series of books in Poiesis display cases.
Thus, the book is a symbol of intellectuality and communication; the feathers are a symbol of freedom; the root symbolises what we carry within us: our insecurities, our fears, who we are and what we are…; the branches, which are root-branches, roots that the artist has transformed into branches, in allusion to inner freedom and resilience. Also present in her work is the concept of “flight”, or the aerial: branches, feathers, butterflies, books suspended in the air… which show not only the idea of flight, but also that of ascent.
Mª Victoria Arribas Roldán
