Rosa Barba's exhibition at Parra & Romero explores translation and landscape through film and sculpture

Rosa Barba's exhibition 'Turn and Wind' at Parra & Romero in Madrid ran from 26 February to 4 April 2020, featuring works like the 20-minute film installation 'Aggregate States of Matter' (2019). This film, set in the Peruvian Andes from Lake Titicaca to the Cordillera Blanca, avoids conventional documentary style, instead layering images and voices of Quechua people with aerial footage to convey climate change impacts obliquely. A central portrait shows a translator between Barba and local communities, emphasizing translation's role in Barba's practice. Another piece, 'Liberties' (2020), includes wax sculptures with text from Susan Howe's 1980 poem, shifting verbal to sculptural forms without illustration. The show also included language-based prints, a sound installation, and a library-like display of Barba's books and colleagues' artworks. George Stolz notes the works' indirect approach, with the film's structure described as dreamlike and nonnarrative. Barba's method captures underlying impulses rather than direct content, revealing connections between human subjects and landscapes.