Works of painting, drawing, and three-dimensional objects form the exhibition by Julián Valle (Aranda de Duero, 1963), titled “The Fabric of the World”, on display at the Museo de Zamora until March 23.
Through various disciplines and approaches, the Burgos-born artist delves into one of the constants of his career: the territory and its cultural transformation by the human communities that inhabit it. This time, his focus is on a specific historical landscape—early medieval rock-cut sanctuaries and hermitages, religious spaces with which the artist feels a spiritual connection and establishes an intimate bond.
The Museo de Zamora now hosts the result of this compelling reflection, fostering an encounter with some pictorial works from its historical collection that feature anchorites, hermits, and ascetics. Originating from the religious communities dissolved during the 19th-century confiscation processes and which gave rise to provincial museums, these works offer another interpretation of the spiritual and privileged connection of humans through a landscape marked by material renunciation and shedding of the superfluous.
Despite the cultural and chronological differences between the two proposals—one contemporary and the other Baroque—they reveal a surprising conceptual affinity that connects history, nature, and inner reflection.