As part of a residence with the association le mètre carré, Cristina Escobar spent two months in a refugee camp in Lucca, Italy. Her work Trophées, composed of 40 pieces of Carrara marble, tells the story of 40 men and women. Each one traces his or her trajectory on a map of the Mediterranean, the artist models it in three dimensions to create these objects with a smooth and perfect appearance, the reward for a victory at the end of a long journey. Marble, symbol of beauty and purity, is also a heavy material, testifying to the difficulty of such a journey, and referring to tombs.
Cristina’s work is often linked to displacement, to travel, perhaps because of her own condition as an islander born in Cuba, exiled in France. Enclosure and the circle are recurrent reflections in her work, in its formal and conceptual aspects. Her minimalist aesthetic close to perfection is supported by the choice of materials such as wood, glass or copper. One can feel his academic training in the great mastery of drawing and forms, especially in his work with volumes. His attention to a certain aesthetic is there to counterbalance committed and often denunciatory remarks. The apparent perfection hides the brutality of the subjects tackled. Cristina Escobar thus plays on the multiple perceptions that the spectator may have and the confusion caused by this plastic beauty.
With Trophées, 40 objects meticulously placed on the ground, like an inventory of perfect, clinical shapes, the artist confronts our gaze with a sad topical subject and continues to look at society, the central subject of her work.