Bienal de Pontevedra

Pilar Albarracín continues to reflect on the horrors of war, using the video as a medium to convey the suffering of civilian victims. Through the image of white pigeons trapped in a net, accompanied by the terrifying sound of the bombings and the shots, the artist underlines the agony and pain caused by armed conflicts. The net trapping the birds alludes to a sense of despair and the sound of violence evokes the massacres of civilians, such as those in Guernica. Albarracín's work pays homage to and reinterprets Picasso's anti-war mural while keeping its relevance as a powerful symbol of peace that is still resonating in contemporary art. The two pieces by Albarracín, Paloma de la Guerra and El origen de la nada, bring the legacy of Guernica into the 21st century and show the importance of denouncing violence and the continuing need to remember the horrors of war in order to safeguard the right to peace. Both pieces by Albarracín were commissioned by the Picasso Museum in Paris to commemorate the centenary of the bombing of Guernica and reflect on the attacks on civilians that are still unavoidable today.