Maria Nolla Mateos (1995) is interested in the material reality of life and death. She believes in the complexity of nature, but that the pursuit of hygiene and efficiency has made it easy for us to forget that it continues to be all around us. In her work she is trying to make our natural surroundings visible again. For this purpose she found a vacant lot in the Amsterdam Zuidas business district. Nolla Mateos spent three months studying this small field that on one side is flanked by the old courthouse, and on the other by the canal of a Roman-Catholic cemetery. “In this periphery of capitalism I was still able to slow down.”She sank two pieces of white mesh fabric into the canal and waited until everything in the water had made the fabric green and brown, initiating the process of decay. “I wanted to use these pieces of fabric to visualize the passing of time.”
The pieces of fabric shown at Prospects are suspended on a metal construction that was retrieved from a local canal by magnet fishermen. Through observing the vacant lot over a longer period of time, Nolla Mateos wanted to get a better insight into the relationships between all creatures and plants living there. With a tiny camera she captured the aquatic organisms in the canal. This video demonstrates that all life, regardless of its shape or size, is first and foremost tangible. Even when we are not aware of it.
Text: Jorne Vriens
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang