Plantae is an organic, biomorphic abstraction that evokes an evolutionary development that subtly crosses the borders of the natural kingdoms.
"Plantae": (Neo-Latin term) definition of the plant kingdom. The term derived from the Latin plant meaning sprout or newborn.
"Vegetāre": (classical Latin) to vivify, to be alive. Organic being that grows, lives, and breeds but does not move from a place by voluntary impulse.
Fundación Camilo José Cela (A Coruña) September 25th 2020 - January 22nd 2021.
Mixed media
Variable measures
2020
"Juliette" is a transdisciplinary project created by Iria do Castelo in collaboration with Ramses Salas during the Artist in Residence Program at SomoS Art House Berlin.
Ramses Salas is a Software Developer based in Berlin and graduated from Charles III University of Madrid in 2016. Member of the Dance and Technologies laboratory at the same University during 2016 and 2017. He has collaborated in the creation of video interactive pieces presented as part of contemporary dance performances at Conde Duque Madrid Cultural Centre and the theater of the University of León.
At SomoS, Iria do Castelo collaborated with media artist Ramses Salas for the first time to create the interactive installation Juliette, exclusively for the October 2019 Un_Real Desires exhibition. The piece incorporates a physical sculpture and a virtual interactive component, modifiable by the viewer through movement. It suggests how humans could follow the impulse of the ecstatic, erotic, and sacred that is suppressed by the demands of society.
1,40 x 80 cms
Mixed media
2019
Rituals are symbolic actions, they give structure to our fluent existence through repetitive activities that create a net where humans can hold on, making the world a more trustable place to inhabit.
In a contemporary landscape, where traditions are vanishing due to a fast and mass production system, a group of anthropomorphic female figures acts as a fetish object gathering around a static bonfire. Those figures exhibit their animality in a set where a celebration is guessed but it suggests at the same time, a transgression of something forbidden. This transgression often happens in a voluptuous intimacy and in sacrifice rituals.
Sculpture installation
Variable measures
2018
Arancha Osoro Gallery (Oviedo)
May 25 - June 29, 2018
Art Marbella
21 - 25 July, 2018
Fundación Abanca Santiago de Compostela
Dec 4th 2018 - March 10th 2021
Kiosko Alfonso A Coruña
March 11 - May 17 2021
Selected by XVII Prize Isaac Díaz Pardo Deputación A Coruña 2021
" Be Loved " is a transdisciplinary project created by Iria do Castelo & Ricardo O'Nascimento supported by MAC Contemporary Art Museum of A Coruña (Spain) and with the collaboration of Niffo Galerie Rotterdam.
Ricardo O’Nascimento is a new media artist from Brazil. He research into body- environment relations through interactive projects and hybrid outlook.
The piece is composed of two twin wereable pieces that interact with each other. The braids connect the twins turning it into an interactive audio performance that shows a complex mix of anxiety and relax feelings.
The project was launched at South Explorer Art Festival in Rotterdam on 31 October 2015. It was performed by us using new media interactive processes and elements of our personal discourse.
Photos: Lidia Vevi
Video: Javier Lloret
Home Body
Group of sculptures - installation
Mixed Media
Variable measures
2020
This interactive sculpture was created during the Artist in Residence Program at MAC (Contemporary Art Museum A Coruña). Residencias MAC 2013.
It is an automotive that responds with feelings to the proximity of the viewer. It has two motion sensors that start breathing when someone stays near and gets excited when people get even closer. The title is based on Sinister in Psychoanalysis Essay of Sigmud Feud (1919).
1,90 x 1,70 x 75 cms.
Iron, papel clay, textile, assemblage, and electronic elements based in Arduino.
Electronic & Mechanical system designed in collaboration with Salvador Gutierrez de la Concha.
Photo: Helm & Anchor
"Curiosos Sucesos a la Hora del Té"
The distortion of the domestic environment is the excuse that I used to develop this series of lysergic characters, a delirious squad in quite odd situations. Sculptures inspired in the victorian popular culture and Alice in Wonderland universe.
Variable measures.
Mixed media.
2013 - 2016
Photos by Helm and Anchor
Breve tratado sobre el Erotismo según Bataille.
Sculpture, assemblage, software and video. 2015.
This piece was created to Excusa Argumental exhibition at MAC (Contemporary Art Museum Gas Natural Fenosa A Coruña) curated by Ignacio García. 23 January - 15 March.
G. Bataille relates eroticism to the prohibition, transgression and the feeling of death. Mystic, sensuality, holiness and sacrifice.
Man builds a, planned, orderly, predictable world, away from the animal world, that adds security, but at times craves animality, the intensity of animal appetite, which is an image of freedom. However, the freedom that man pursues may no longer be around the appetite of the animal, since it has appeared consciousness (and in particular, the awareness of death), which distributes the possibilities of life between what is permitted and what is forbidden. This knowledge is inalienable and irrevocable.
Video and software designed in collaboration with Salvador Gutierrez de la Concha.
Pencil drawings
112 x 80 cms.
Graphite on paper.
Set design.
A collaboration with Harrison Ford Fiesta music band.
Visuals and scenography created to a one off concert of the band at Espai Erre, Barcelona.
Event launched by SET.
Photo by SET.
Video edition by Marc Castañé.
2016.
Bunny Pickwick was created while artist in residence at MAC Contemporary Art Museum A Coruña.
The Pickwick Papers is Charles Dickens's first novel. It was created as a monthly publication and each chapter was an popular literary event. Nowadays it is considered a masterpiece of english literature.
The Bunny Pickwick project was launched with the spirit of being released by chapters onto social media, with collaboration of photographers and videographers, showing the private life of the main character.
Video: A&Y
Photo: Helm & Anchor
Set design commissioned by Resis Festival 2021, the contemporary classical music festival of the city of A Coruña.
A site specific project at Iglesia del Convento de las Capuchinas for a concert of Cuarteto Matrice playing Requiem by Mozart, String Quartet no. 3 by Sciacinto Scelsi and Ombra di Suono nella Memoria by Voro García.
Especially grateful to Antigüedades El Desván for kindly letting me use some to their pieces in the set.
Photos by Xurxo Gómez-Chao
