Clara Sanchez Sala

Clara Sánchez Sala - The body will become whatever the milk is

Biografía del Artista: Clara Sánchez Sala is a contemporary artist born in 1987 in Alicante, Spain. Her artistic training began at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Valencia, where she graduated in 2010. She subsequently continued her training with a master's degree in Research and Creation in Art, at the same institution. In 2014, she obtained a scholarship at the Institute for Research and Experimentation in Art and Criticism (IIEAC) at the Complutense University of Madrid. Clara Sánchez's work focuses on the exploration of connections between scientific, literary and technological data, from a poetic point of view. Her artistic research focuses on three fundamental themes: the fictional dimension of cartographic representation, reflection on the landscape as a space of encounter and the Earth as the primordial experience of man. Through her work, Clara Sánchez seeks to create a discourse always referring to the complex world of fiction that we humans generate in that incessant de-estrangement that consists of the encounter with the external world, and which we usually call: "real". Her work spans a variety of formats, from painting and sculpture to installation and video art. Clara Sánchez's work has been exhibited in various galleries and museums in Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, and the United States. Some of her solo exhibitions include "Hueso" at My Name's Lolita Art Gallery in Valencia in 2014, "Cosmogonías" at Punto Gallery in Valencia in 2016, and "Mecánica de la Mirada" at Pepita Lumier Gallery in Valencia in 2019. In 2016, she received the Focus-Abengoa International Painting Award in Seville, Spain, and in 2018, she was selected to participate in the Casa Velázquez Artistic Residency in Madrid. Clara Sánchez's work is part of public and private collections in Spain and abroad, including the Focus-Abengoa Collection, the Contemporary Art Collection of the University of Valencia, and the Coca-Cola Foundation Contemporary Art Collection.

The body will become whatever the milk is “And then they should be raised in that poverty and humility and discipline of religion that their age will endure, so that, like milk, they suck from their childhood and tender age the observance of the holy religion from the breasts filled with much doctrine and much discipline of their teacher.” With these words, Hernando de Talavera addresses the novices of the Cistercian monastery of Ávila in the Brief and Succinct Compilation that he wrote for them at the end of the 15th century, when he was bishop of that city. For the novices, drinking milk from their teacher meant that entering the convent was like being born again; it also meant that, just as milk is for a newborn, doctrine was the only appropriate food for the nun, and the one that is enough on its own to satisfy her. However, milk, in this case, is not only a nutritious food: it is a liquid that, due to its properties, informs the person who consumes it, that is, it can have an impact on their physical, psychological and moral traits, even to the point of altering their properties. In other words, associating milk with a teaching is equivalent to underlining the force that it can and should have. Breastfeeding is undoubtedly reminiscent of motherhood in the broadest sense of the word, as it represents the most vital, nourishing and nourishing form of care. The breast activates the growth of the child. The act of breastfeeding establishes a physical connection between bodies, so close that it allows the infant to hear the mother's heartbeat while being fed. A sound that lasts as long as life exists. As if it were a kind of blood transfusion (a mother's milk comes from her own blood), a connection is established between the act of breastfeeding and infusing life into a body. A bronze loaf of bread, on top of the sculpture, a nipple of butter with the aim of breathing life and knowledge into the model by the artist.