Exhibitions
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“The Hajj: Road from the Western Caliphate
From March 27, 2019 until June 14, 2019Mondays through Fridays, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Closed on Sundays and holidays.
CÓRDOBA
Casa Árabe exhibition hall number 2 (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9).
Mondays through Fridays, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Closed on Sundays and holidays.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
On Wednesday, March 27 at its Cordoba headquarters, Casa Árabe is
officially opening this exhibition dedicated to the pilgrimage by Pablo
Rojas, with oil paintings, watercolor paintings, etchings and engravings
by the artist.
The pilgrimage is a phenomenon which has existed throughout human history since the dawn of time. In all belief systems, some formula exists to leave our world behind (our “comfort space”) and face a sublime reality. Pilgrimage also represents a search, a journey of initiation to encounter the creator of earthly forms. The origin. It also allows us to visualize ourselves and ask questions from outside our customary surroundings.
As one of the five pillars of Islam, the pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj has always held and still holds fundamental importance, having become a feature that articulates and bonds the world together through space and time: it has opened up trade routes and paths of knowledge, creating paths all along which sites of scholarship and sharing ideas gradually formed. Removing social, ethnic, national and even gender-based barriers, after a long, exhausting journey, pilgrims meld together in the community, kneeling before the Kaaba, dispossessed of all paraphernalia from the material world. Wearing only two pieces of white fabric, in what will one day become their funerary shroud, they can find by their side people of every status and type, because for the immensity of the Lord, we men and women are equal before HIM and form part of the same divine manifestation.
Pablo Rojas, despite being a contemporary artist committed to cutting-edge art, has always been interested in forms of expression that have existed across time, especially those which make it possible to complete an inner journey through contact with them, which is why he tracks down the spiritual connection emanating from certain creations which appear to arise from such inspiration,
which transcends the human realm, a connection he has seen in Islamic art—on a long journey in search of it from Afghanistan to the Maghreb—discovering a world slipping away, one which, in many cases, had already vanished. In an exercise which connected with archetypes more than with a reality, Pablo Rojas recreates that world that perhaps once was, but may only exist in his longing, using a language in his work that resembles that of passionate travelers, of those pilgrims who dared face all the dangers with their heart on their sleeve.
The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 7:30 p.m., in Casa Árabe exhibition hall number 2, and will include the presence of Pablo Rojas, who will give a guided tour of the exhibition.
Exhibition information sheet
Pablo Rojas was trained at the Ceramics School of La Moncloa (Madrid); he learned about hand engraving at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and about engraving using non-toxic techniques in the same city. Also in the Spanish capital, he has put on exhibitions at the Reina Sofía Museum, the Banco de Santander Foundation, the collection of the Spanish Parliament (Congreso de los Diputados) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His works have also been on display in other countries, including places such as the Graphic International Museum (Oslo, Norway), Collection Gonzaga & Fernada Drunmont (Madeira, Portugal) and the Presidential Collection of the Republic of Portugal, and he has worked with notable artists from both Spain and abroad.
Photo caption:
A work by Pablo Rojas. Calligraphy, 60 x 80 cm.
Hadith: The most blessed of men is the one who most benefits humanity.
As one of the five pillars of Islam, the pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj has always held and still holds fundamental importance, having become a feature that articulates and bonds the world together through space and time: it has opened up trade routes and paths of knowledge, creating paths all along which sites of scholarship and sharing ideas gradually formed. Removing social, ethnic, national and even gender-based barriers, after a long, exhausting journey, pilgrims meld together in the community, kneeling before the Kaaba, dispossessed of all paraphernalia from the material world. Wearing only two pieces of white fabric, in what will one day become their funerary shroud, they can find by their side people of every status and type, because for the immensity of the Lord, we men and women are equal before HIM and form part of the same divine manifestation.
Pablo Rojas, despite being a contemporary artist committed to cutting-edge art, has always been interested in forms of expression that have existed across time, especially those which make it possible to complete an inner journey through contact with them, which is why he tracks down the spiritual connection emanating from certain creations which appear to arise from such inspiration,
which transcends the human realm, a connection he has seen in Islamic art—on a long journey in search of it from Afghanistan to the Maghreb—discovering a world slipping away, one which, in many cases, had already vanished. In an exercise which connected with archetypes more than with a reality, Pablo Rojas recreates that world that perhaps once was, but may only exist in his longing, using a language in his work that resembles that of passionate travelers, of those pilgrims who dared face all the dangers with their heart on their sleeve.
The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 7:30 p.m., in Casa Árabe exhibition hall number 2, and will include the presence of Pablo Rojas, who will give a guided tour of the exhibition.
Exhibition information sheet
Pablo Rojas was trained at the Ceramics School of La Moncloa (Madrid); he learned about hand engraving at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and about engraving using non-toxic techniques in the same city. Also in the Spanish capital, he has put on exhibitions at the Reina Sofía Museum, the Banco de Santander Foundation, the collection of the Spanish Parliament (Congreso de los Diputados) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His works have also been on display in other countries, including places such as the Graphic International Museum (Oslo, Norway), Collection Gonzaga & Fernada Drunmont (Madeira, Portugal) and the Presidential Collection of the Republic of Portugal, and he has worked with notable artists from both Spain and abroad.
Photo caption:
A work by Pablo Rojas. Calligraphy, 60 x 80 cm.
Hadith: The most blessed of men is the one who most benefits humanity.
