RocioSantaCruz

RocioSantaCruz is a dynamic space for contemporary creation and thought in all its manifestations. Situated in the neuralgic center of Barcelona, the venue showcases projects by both established artists and emerging talents.

True to is trajectory since its creation in 1994 in Paris as a publisher of artists’ books, RocioSantaCruz honors its commitment to highlighting unpublished archives with the aim of sparking a conversation between the avant-gardes of the latter half of the 20th century and new contemporary practices. The gallery is conceived as a place for experimentation, a forum for discussion, and a space for the diffusion of new practices, where particular interest is paid to photography, experimental cinema, and the archive and publication of artists’ books.

Represented artists:

Virxilio Viéitez, Jean Denant, Lionel Sabatté, Teresa Gancedo, Javier Inés, Colita, Pilar Aymerich, Palmira Puig, Ouka Leele, Lúa Ribeira, Toni Amengual, Antón Lamazares, Marina Núñez, Dionisio Cañas, Dionis Escorsa, Oriol Vilapuig, Barbara Mors, Antoni Campañà, Paco Elvira, Marcel Giró, Lluís Hortalà, Gonzalo Elvira, Fina Miralles, Gloria Oyarzabal, Miguel Rio Branco, Francisco Ontañón, ORLAN, Miguel Trillo, Diogo Pimentã, Blanca Casas Brullet, Vari Caramés, Ceesepe, Eduardo Salvatore, Nicolás Combarro, German Lorca, Andrés Galeano, Miquel Mont, Pep Duran, Lois Patiño, Montserrat Soto, Sergio Vega

The exhibition presents the artist’s book «L’odeur de la sainteté» by Antonio Saura, featuring texts by Fernando Arrabal. Published in Paris in 1975, the work originated from Saura’s reinterpretation of a collection of anticlerical erotic photographs belonging to Yves Rivière, the book’s publisher and the master printer of Rocío Santa Cruz.

The publication is regarded as one of the most incisive and significant works in Saura’s graphic oeuvre. The edition comprises 125 copies, each accompanied by six original etchings, as well as a suite of thirteen etchings issued in an edition of eighteen copies on Chinese paper.

The prints unfold the artist’s distinctive gestural and irreverent visual language, articulating a biting, ironic and transgressive critique of religious authority. Together, they highlight the remarkable visual power of this publication and the fertile dialogue between Saura’s imagery and Arrabal’s writing.