VARIATION. NOLI ME TANGERE: CLARA SÁNCHEZ SALA

A navel is like a knot. But the knot is a closed connection, like the symbol of infinity, where time is eternal. However, time does not cease in this carnal knot,: its shape and texture change with the different stages of life, reminding you that your time is finite.
Five centuries ago the navel was a burning issue for theologians and painters. If neither Eve nor Adam had been born of woman, there was no reason for the remains of their umbilical cord to exist, that is, for them to have navels. But if they lacked them, were they not imperfect as human beings?
While theologians disputed, painters tried not to compromise. They simply increased the size of the vine leaves to hide at the same time the genitals and navels of Adam and Eve.
In the Paleolithic, this did not seem to be a dilemma of concern. In various excavations, several “venus” have been found with a notorious and deep navel in the abdomen, just as if time had been the same for them as for any mortal.
Perhaps this umbilical debate is not only a merely temporal question, but a reflection of a concrete concern in a specific time and space.
This form of umbilical time, on the one hand eternal, but on the other perishable, is what seems to have also permeated the historicization of the arts, in which artists bear historical witness to the spirit of their time and their society.
Noli me tangere explores the representation of the human body, (after all, it is the subject capable of suffering any situation and confronting it), from erotic forms such as navels, breasts and lips from a classical point of view, but also current, historical or cultural. The naked lips of a classical Greek bust painted with lipstick that further emphasize its nudity, several bronze navels connected by chains as umbilical cords knotted together, which hinder the viewer, or the print of a woman’s breasts made at the moment of knowing her state of pregnancy are some of the pieces that establish a dialogue focused on the human aspects that are hidden within the systems of temporal interpretation.
Likewise, the title of the project Noli me tangere (Do not touch me), are the words that Jesus Christ addresses to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, because his body no longer belongs to that time or that space, but beyond that, it also alludes to an action that continues in time (Do not hold me), let time pass.

VARIATION is a collaborative project by Galerie Sator and NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ that aims to broaden artist’s international visibility trough solo proposals in Madrid and Paris.
‘Noli me tangere ‘ is the first edition of VARIATION and takes place in Paris, in the Galerie Sator space, from Saturday October 15th until Saturday October 22nd.

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