Now You Pray: Fragment of the Hail Mary
Valeria Guerra

On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 18th, we opened the ´ace studio so that the artists in residence from the May-June period could share their creative processes and the results of their projects with the local public. There, Valeria Guerra (Perú) presented Ahora ruega tú: fragmento del Ave María (“Now You Pray: Fragment of the Hail Mary”), an installation in the Sala Políglota of the ´ace studio.

This altar-like installation, made not of gold and wood as would traditionally be the case, but of non-sacred materials such as cardboard, plastic, and graphite, speaks of the ephemeral and the discarded without seeking to exalt the sacred. Devotion remains, albeit eroded and fragmented. Devotion here is not a firm truth but a constant erosion in the attempt to sustain itself. In the center, the Virgin is presented as a negative image. It refers to the mantle that, according to tradition, preserved the face of Christ, but here that imprint is the shadow of Mary. The figure offers no comfort, becoming a presence that demands without promising and challenges without looking. Around her, hair, thorns, oranges, and candles are drawn in graphite. Each alludes to the body and silent devotion. A sacrifice that takes place unseen. A faith that is exercised without reward. The work does not seek to produce faith, but rather to expose its mechanisms: what it asks for, what it takes, what it leaves behind. This altar is not a promise. It is an open question that remains in the viewer’s body. How much can be offered before disappearing? When does it cease to be faith and become punishment?