Heartbreak (2019)

Accompanying RUYA MAPS’ first presentation in Venice, the HEARTBREAK catalogue features a foreword by co-curators Tamara Chalabi and Paolo Colombo, an essay by Themelis Glynatsis and an extract from Alain de Botton’s forthcoming publication.

The volume is fully illustrated with images of the artworks, and of the creative processes that led to their works. There are also additional texts, including poems by Virgil and Nizami.

The volume is in fact a three way conversation between the curators, the artists and Christoph Radl, who conceived its design and layout. He uses an old manuscript of Layla and Majnun as a template on which to superimpose the works that are shown in the exhibition. Merging the old with the new, today’s world with the ancient, Radl connects the universal elements of the exhibition’s story. The book thus becomes a parallel and supportive narrative to the exhibition, layering the different approaches by the artists to the theme in its carefully designed pages.

Crisálida (2018)

Accompanying RUYA MAPS’ inaugural exhibition, ‘Crisálida’ is a fully illustrated publication designed by Beirut-based graphic designer Farah Fayyad, with imagery by Caracas-based photographer Julio Osorio.

It includes essays by Tamara Chalabi, Curator of Crisálida, and Elizabeth Marín Hernández, Associate Professor in Contemporary Art at the Universidad de los Andes, Mérida.

In a pertinent continuation of the exhibition’s themes, all the objects included in the installation are listed in the form of a shipping ledger. Thumbnailed entries, including unexpectedly personal descriptions of the inventory, highlight the clash between the personal and the prosaic inherent in the preparation for any journey. The ledger’s reference to shipping procedures for the international loan and sale of artworks provides a provocative extension to López’s artistic investigation of exile.