On the occasion of the opening of the new art space Hub/Art Barcelona, we met the artists selected for the first exhibition entitled “Coming soon. Time is getting longer”. They are Sophie Elizabeth Thompson, a British sculptor living in Barcelona for over 15 years, and Paolo Di Rosa, an Italian painter who has been collaborating with Hub/Art since 2018.

The subject of the exhibition is time, meant as a succession of events and as a measurable order of becoming, a theme suggested by a concrete circumstance. The Hub/Art Barcelona gallery was expected to open in the summer of 2021, but due to pandemic delays, it could not be opened. The only trace of its “imminent” arrival was one window sticker: “Coming soon”.  A time that stretched on for more than a year, only to be consumed by the opening on 22 June 2022.

On show there is a selection of pictorial and sculptural works that dialogue with each other in form and color. In Paolo Di Rosa’s paintings, all connotations of space and time are removed. His characters are placed in a ‘non-place’ and, as if they were in front of a mirror, they ask the observer to immerse themselves in their dreamlike, parallel universe. His work is light, ethereal, and lunar. There is no gravity. On the contrary, the sinuous lines of the sculptures of Sophie Elizabeth Thomson give shape and weight to abstract concepts. Time becomes present, concrete.

The first question is about the perception of time and its opposite, the losing track of it. What does this mean in the artistic process?
S.E.T.: Being completely present means losing track of time, not worrying about the future, and not considering the past. When I create my work, I have to be completely present, in its perfection and stillness. To gather myself in that gap between thinking and perceiving reality. This is the true creative moment.
P.D.R.: There are several moments when I lose the perception of time, but the most “poignant” is when I am making a work of art. The moment when I feel that a new idea is born, when I start researching through texts, images, music. That moment is time that expands, without even being aware of it.

A song you wish would never end.
S.E.T.: I listen to music all the time, so I always get my headphones on. There is no single answer. It depends on what I’m doing but quite often I listen to rhythmic music. One name that comes to mind is Kerala Dust, a band that combines psychedelic rock, blues, and techno.
P.D.R.: The songs form the background to my moods. Sad if I want to wallow in melancholy, energy-giving if I feel strong and want to charge up even more; other times it can be an Argentine tango that I wish would never end if it is accompanied by a special dancer.

Speaking of music, two terms came to my mind: pause and rewind. If your life were a song and you could pause and rewind, would you like to change anything?
S.E.T.: No, you cannot change the past. And if I could go back, surely there would be some painful experiences that I would not want to go through again. But I wouldn’t want to change them. I wouldn’t want to change anything about those moments because they helped make me the person I am and the person I will be. For that I feel a sense of gratitude.
P.D.R.: We are the result of our choices, whether they are right or wrong. However, if I had the ability to change something, it would be to live some moments at the beginning of my career with less caution and more lightness.

Do you have time for yourself?
S.E.T.: I make time for myself. I get up early in the morning, do meditation and some workout. I walk my dog by the sea, read, write and prepare my day while drinking coffee. But there is one thing I absolutely love and that is to go to my studio every day and make art. I try to make the most of those moments, and I have to say that maybe I should be more disciplined about that and learn to stop, disconnect at the end of the day, and do something else.
P.D.R.: A lot and very little. Art is my life. I live in symbiosis with it. I cannot make a distinction, I dedicate myself completely to it, for better or for worse. It is like a glass: it depends whether you see it half full or half empty. In this reading there is everything.

Info:

Coming Soon. Time is getting longer
Sophie Elizabeth Thompson and Paolo Di Rosa
Hub/Art Barcelona
Carrer del Doctor Trueta, 183
22/06/2022 – 9/09/2022
Finissage: 9 September h. 19:00-22:00