In 1950’s Spain, Ana and Martín — a lesbian woman and a gay man — entered into a marriage of convenience. At Prospects, Rafael Romero Peña (1988) recounts the story of their relationship by showing a replica of the interior the couple lived in. In this setting, the artist presents two of his sculptures. “The meaning of the sculptures is not immediately obvious as I wanted them to reflect the situation these two people found themselves in. They too were unable to simply relinquish their secrets.”
A key to what the sculptures may signify can be found in the short letter lying on a cabinet. The text is a fragment from a book Romero will be publishing shortly. The story in this book is loosely inspired by the life of a family member. Romero used it as the point of departure for writing a narrative on queer relationships. As he did not have all the information, he decided to speculate about what might have taken place within the relationship between Ana and Martín. During his research he stumbled on a bigger problem: there are hardly any records about queer history in the official archives. This makes fiction and empathy the key ingredients for understanding a life that partly had to be hidden from public view. Romero’s installation is an invitation to reflect on this. By zooming in on the traditional male/female binary and heterosexual relationships in his work, he succeeds in actually making the history of queer people more visible.
Text: Jorne Vriens
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang