The traveler seeks to be immersed in nature by walking through it; he becomes accustomed to it, to its reliefs, to its details. As in a W. G. Sebald novel, the artwork serves as a witness of his wanderings. His obsession presents itself either in meticulous camouflages of the environment or in the overwhelming detail of the various inanimate objects. Clean, defined, concrete "Pathetic Fallacy": any description of inanimate natural objects assigned to them capabilities, feelings and human emotions," according to John Ruskin.
Nature is that unit without borders, as Georg Simmel's “The philosophy of landscape“ indicates, it knows nothing of individuality. The individual components that make up landscapes, stones, leaves, stems, etc. are just objects taken from the landscape itself; the view of the spectator defines the uniqueness of nature, framing the contemplative experience. According to Simmel, the aesthetic experience provoked by a landscape, results from our eyes’ will to restrict, to limit. Human works found within landscapes are subordinated to the natural site. Some paintings depict architectural structures (specifically, bunkers) that point to our acceptance of their conformation within the landscape itself. This structure seems silent, stoic, in constant conversation with the stillness of the place.
"What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods? I suspect myself, and cannot help a shudder, when I find myself so implicated even in what are called good works — for this may sometimes happen.” (1)
"Falacia Patética (Pathetic Fallacy)" originates from the recording of spaces, it is the result of being on the other side. The work shown represents isolated elements of nature, contemplative reinterpretation of space, fake stones as an exercise that reminds us of that splendid isolation2. Maps that record a trip that never happened, a series of geographic points that point to the mixed fictions within the exhibition.

1. Thoreau, Henry David, "Walk", Ardora Express, Madrid, 2010
2. Zizek, Slavoj, "In Defense of Lost Causes," Akal, Mexico, 2011

Text by Rodrigo Santoscoy

Body of work developed during the artist-in-residence program at Viborg Kunsthal, Denmark.