El libro del amor is born in confinement, in seclusion, and in the act of looking back. Artist Macarena Soto delves into her memories and emotions to create a nostalgic body of work to speak to us about adolescence, about her adolescence.
Starting by looking at Edward Munch's painting Puberty, to whom she refers in one of her own paintings, Macarena Soto highlights the lack of visibility that adolescence and puberty have had in works by female artists. We are captivated by the adolescent body in paintings like those of Balthus, which eroticize the bodies of young girls, as well as those of classical painters who made the symbolic representation of the naked adolescent possible. However, this representation was missing from female artists who spoke from a different perspective; from their own standpoint, from the most intimate and subjective narrative - in other words, from the truth of their bodies.
The artist wields her paintbrush like someone holding their life's diary - hence the exhibition's title, El libro del amor (The book of love) - and creates a series of 6 paintings to nostalgically rewrite this stage of her life. According to Macarena, this stage should be revalued, as it's during this time that the question of what it means to be a woman arises. It will be the physical changes, the emotional overflow, the relationship with our own bodies, and the gaze of others upon them that will determine whether this is indeed the book of love or not.