Maider López at Galería Espacio Mínimo

In a tiny village in central Spain, a farmer moved a mound of reduce grass on the again of his tractor. Eclipsing the car, the big load appeared to “stroll” by itself, gently wobbling alongside like a creature from a fairy story.

An opportunity encounter with such a scene impressed “Hierba en movimiento” (Transferring Grass), an exhibition at Espacio Mínimo by the Basque artist Maider López. Within the first of three movies, Hierba en Movimiento, tractor (Transferring Grass, tractor, all works cited 2021), we watch a pile of reduce grass—the tractor hidden beneath its bulk—making its manner by a grove of oak timber and down the cobbled streets of a small enclave. In Hierba en Movimiento (Transferring Grass), and Hierba en Movimiento, cenital (Transferring Grass, overhead), the inhabitants of the village and a few choose outsiders work together with each other whereas decked out in wearable knee-length haystacks. These “grass-men” shuffle quietly over the fields and alongside the roads. Their procession—directly sacral, pagan, and playful—recollects these of harvest festivals, agricultural celebrations that present a respite from work in addition to an opportunity to specific gratitude for the earth’s bounty. We observe this scene from two views: one from above, which distances us from the motion and thus transforms us into voyeurs, and the opposite at floor degree, in order that we simply slip into the midst of the motion and turn into a part of this unusual parade.

Translated from Spanish by Michele Faguet

— Joaquín Jesús Sánchez