Carolina Serrano at the studio

Carolina Serrano (Portugal, 1994) lives and works between Cologne and Lisbon.

Serrano's work and research revolves around the temporal dimension of sculpture. The artist's sculptural thinking collapses, recurrently, with the notions of light and shadow; with the ideas of destruction and appearance; and with the duality between interior and exterior and between full and empty space.

Serrano is interested in the concept of the restricted, inaccessible and therefore unknown “place”, and in the uncertainty of the extent of it. In recent years Carolina Serrano has been working almost exclusively with paraffin wax because of its plastic possibilities, as is the reflection of the light, but above all because of the theoretical and conceptual possibilities that this material can originate in the field of the observer's imagination. Serrano is also interested in the idea of a potential spiritual transmutation and transubstantiation of the sculptural object.

Carolina Serrano

I made a promise in eternity, 2021

Parafina

221 x 61.5cm

What inspires you when you create?

To my work, I’m trying to understand and think about what it is to be a human being, what it is to live in the world inside a body, and also, I’m trying to think about the notions of time and space and opposite ideas.

What are you working on recently?

I recently finished my first solo exhibition in Germany where I live now and in 2022 I’m going to prepare a group exhibition in Germany as well. Also a solo exhibition in Lisbon.

Carolina Serrano

Os amantes, 2020

Parafina

150 x 130cm

Tell us about your creative process

About my creative process, I normally go to my notebooks where I draw and write some ideas about mental images and sculptures that I see on my mind.

When I have an exhibition or project to work with I go to these notebooks and when the sculpture is ready to be alive (let’s say) I materialise it. Sometimes I do variations of the sculptures while in the studio. And my dreams and ideas are always present throughout my creative process.

You are participating for the first time in the fair, what do you expect from Art Madrid?

What I expect from Art Madrid’22 is that my work can be seen and appreciated. People can find the space and the time to look at my works, because in a fair there are a lot of booths and artworks, so I think that every visitor has to find the moment and create the relationship with the work that they like.

In your work you explore the duality between exterior and interior, full and empty space, and even light and shadow. Where does this interest in exploring and confronting opposites come from?

Opposites are completely connected with the notion of time and suffering, because time it's a human concept. Some, like Saint Augustin the medieval philosopher, believe that the evil of the world comes from the division from the real desire into conflicting desires. So the dispersion of the soul it is a division. Opposites are a great part of what it is to be a human being.

Carolina Serrano

Gume, 2021

Parafina

48 x 16cm

The color black in the history of art has always been related to some divine darkness, together with the spirituality that your works give off and the interest in an unknown and inaccessible “place”, are we in front of a search for your own type of religiosity?

I think art can make us come closer and recognize our most deepest places. So for a few seconds, I say seconds because we cannot count them, time is able to become still. And normally this happens with surprise and astonishment or with the unexpected. So yes, maybe we can reach that almost unknown and inaccessible place that we have inside us. Maybe art can have a type of spirituality and religiosity.

The artist Carolina Serrano participates for the first time in the fair with Galerie Alex Serra, together with the artists Katja Davar, Mário Macilau, René Tavares and Rui Sanches.

The practice of the collective DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) is situated at a fertile intersection between contemporary art, ecological thinking, and a philosophy of experience that shifts the emphasis from production to attention. Faced with the visual and material acceleration of the present, their work does not propose a head-on opposition, but rather a sensitive reconciliation with time, understood as lived duration rather than as a measure. The work thus emerges as an exercise in slowing down, a pedagogy of perception where contemplating and listening become modes of knowledge.

In the work of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro), the territory does not function as a framework but rather as an agent. The landscape actively participates in the process, establishing a dialogical relationship reminiscent of certain eco-critical currents, in which subjectivity is decentralized and recognized as part of a broader framework. This openness implies an ethic of exposure, which is defined as the act of exposing oneself to the climate, the elements, and the unpredictable, and this means accepting vulnerability as an epistemological condition.

The materials—fabrics, pigments, and footprints—serve as surfaces for temporary inscriptions and memories, bearing the marks of time. The initial planning is conceived as an open hypothesis, allowing chance and error to act as productive forces. In this way, the artistic practice of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) articulates a poetics of care and being-with, where creating is, above all, a profound way of feeling and understanding nature.

In a historical moment marked by speed and the overproduction of images, your work seems to champion slowness and listening as forms of resistance. Could it be said that your practice proposes a way of relearning time through aesthetic experience?

Diana: Yes, but more than resistance or vindication, I would speak of reconciliation—of love. It may appear slow, but it is deliberation; it is reflection. Filling time with contemplation or listening is a way of feeling. Aesthetic experience leads us along a path of reflection on what lies outside us and what lies within.

The territory does not appear in your work as a backdrop or a setting, but as an interlocutor. How do you negotiate that conversation between the artist’s will and the voice of the place, when the landscape itself participates in the creative process?

Álvaro: For us, the landscape is like a life partner or a close friend, and naturally this intimate relationship extends into our practice. We go to visit it, to be with it, to co-create together. We engage in a dialogue that goes beyond aesthetics—conversations filled with action, contemplation, understanding, and respect.

Ultimately, in a way, the landscape expresses itself through the material. We respect all the questions it poses, while at the same time valuing what unsettles us, what shapes us, and what stimulates us within this relationship.

The Conquest of the Rabbits I & II. 2021. Process.

In your approach, one senses an ethic of exposure: exposing oneself to the environment, to the weather, to others, to the unpredictable. To what extent is this vulnerability also a form of knowledge?

Diana: For us, this vulnerability teaches us a great deal—above all, humility. When we are out there and feel the cold, the rain, or the sun, we become aware of how small and insignificant we are in comparison to the grandeur and power of nature.

So yes, we understand vulnerability as a profound source of knowledge—one that helps us, among many other things, to let go of our ego and to understand that we are only a small part of a far more complex web.

Sometimes mountains cry too. 2021. Limestone rockfall, sun, rain, wind, pine resin on acrylic on natural cotton canvas, exposed on a blanket of esparto grass and limestone for two months.. 195 cm x 130 cm x 3 cm.

Your works often emerge from prolonged processes of exposure to the environment. Could it be said that the material—the fabrics, the pigments, the traces of the environment—acts as a memory that time writes on you as much as you write on it?

Álvaro: This is a topic for a long conversation, sitting on a rock—it would be very stimulating. But if experiences shape people’s inner lives and define who we are in the present moment, then I would say yes, especially in that sense.

Leaving our comfort zone has led us to learn from the perseverance of plants and the geological calm of mountains. Through this process, we have reconciled ourselves with time, with the environment, with nature, with ourselves, and even with our own practice. Just as fabrics hold the memory of a place, we have relearned how to pay attention and how to understand. Ultimately, it is a way of deepening our capacity to feel.

The fox and his tricks. 2022. Detail.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

Diana: Our planning is limited to an initial hypothesis. We choose the materials, colours, places, and sometimes even the specific location, but we leave as much room as possible for the unexpected to occur. In the end, that is what it is really about: allowing nature to speak and life to unfold. For us, both the unexpected and mistakes are part of the world’s complexity, and within that complexity we find a form of natural beauty.