Regina de Miguel
Arbustos de nervios como bosques de coral, 2020
Astro lacustre, 2021, Mater Suspiriorum, 2022, Abrazo Simbionte, 2022

Installation view: Abundant Futures. Works from the TBA21 Collection, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía C3A, Córdoba, Spain, 2022, Regina de Miguel, Arbustos de nervios como bosques de coral 01 , 2020, Photo: Rafael Suarez | TBA21
Collection

EN/ES

Nerve Bushes Like Coral Forests 01, 2020
Nerve Bushes Like Coral Forests 07, 2020

Watercolor, gouache, and pencils on paper
55.5 x 43.5 cm (framed)

Lacustrine Star, 2021
Acrylic on board
80 x 60 cm

Mater suspiriorum, 2022
Mixed media on wood 

Symbiote Hug, 2022
Aquarelle, gouache, and pencil on paper 
46 x 53 (framed) 
Commissioned by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary ​​for the exhibition “Abundant Futures” at the C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba, April 1, 2022–March 5, 2023, curated by Daniela Zyman

Multispecies holobionts with the nervous system of a cuttlefish, corals, parts of fungi, flowers, insects, pottery, masks, necklaces, and cosmic representations—these are some of the organisms and animistic objects inhabiting Regina de Miguel’s works. A holobiont, as theorized by the biologist Lynn Margulis, is an assemblage of many species living together to form ecological systems, often in symbiosis or any other form of cooperation. It embodies and exemplifies the interrelatedness of all organic and nonorganic matter. In the series of watercolors and paintings, microbial and human-made agencies are thoroughly entangled and confused and form animistic totems that express the interdependence of all matter. 

These works are part of a group of paintings originating in an eco-science-fiction story de Miguel wrote in 2020. In this futuristic tale, set in a world in which humans have colonized space, the main character is a biologist whose research on alien archeology takes place on a planet called Exile. She lives by a swamp and describes and paints the mutant life forms that surround her. The mythopoeic swamp shifts from a site of cohabitation and multiplicity, fomenting the dilemmas of nostalgia, to an interface from which to talk to comets, convene a meeting of suicides, or dream of intoxicated waters. Then, the outbreak of a virus forces her into confinement in a hotel, where she wanders around the grounds in isolation, observing the hybrids between birds and insects and the mutant vegetal species while reflecting on the link between cosmic chemistry and terrestrial epidemics.

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Group exhibition: Abundant Futures
Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba  
Curator: Daniela Zyman
Exhibition 1 April 2022 - 5 March 2023
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Born in Málaga, Spain, in 1977. Lives in Berlin, Germany.