Cracking a nut

Cracking a nut is an insignificant, everyday action. Who would think of entertaining us by cracking nuts? But the fact is that in its very humility this action has in itself the ability to deploy the whole structure of a tiny scene, with its own expectations and dénouement. It doesn’t just summons us with the promise of something to eat, but also manages to focus the attention of everyone there on a single point. 

Rather than the often unsuccessful pretensions of more ambitious, elaborate stories, Lúa Coderch places herself where small events like this one discreetly seem to offer us a starting point for a movement of restoration, from which to repair the seams of our common life.

In the Fabra i Coats venue, the exhibition shows a series of devices to capture the attention, including a film-curtain, sculptures that might be furniture and a programme of small-scale actions to share with others, like a set of scenes or small units of meaning that could even make up the starting point of a shared narrative.​

Through videos, performances and installations, the work of Lúa Coderch (Iquitos, Peru, 1982) deals with the ways we try to make sense of our perceptions, and with how stories and images are essential to give form to our lives. Her work has been exhibited at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Bienalsur 2021, MACBA and the Fundació Joan Miró, among other museums and arts centres.