Sergio Belinchón en Silos

For this exhibition, the artist has developed his work while living directly with the monks at the Abbey in Silos. During his two weeks at the monastery, Belinchón faces silence and solitude, and alternates silent days in the monks company with days visiting the surroundings. This fortnight results in more than 3,000 photographs of the monastery, its inhabitants and the environment.

The exhibition is composed of seven video portraits, or photographs of monks in flat screen television, and two photographs on paper. The result becomes especially interesting when facing the space of the hall of the monastery. The projections, presented vertically on flat screens, appear to be photographs displayed in light boxes. Only the spectator who looks carefully will notice the portrait blink or that the habit flutters slightly in the wind.

The artist does not present the work as a series of videos, but as a series of photographs that have time as an added element. Belinchón portrays a group that leads a very specific life dedicated to silence, prayer and work and where the concept of time is the complete opposite of how it is perceived in today's society. In the Monastery of Silos time passes without a sequence of noisy images or changes, nothing changes or only very slightly, so Belinchón chose to convey through his photographs the work, prayer and silence of the monks.