How did your collaboration come about? In fact, this is the first time you will be doing an exhibition together. Were you aware of each other’s career previously? How did this relationship begin?

Mònica / Our firm dates back to 1911. We have been in the Gothic Quarter for 75 years and now we have been in a new space for 5 years in Calle Bailén, 19. We’re based in an old textile factory, which allows us to embark on more ambitious projects. Over the last few years, I’ve wanted to open up to new perspectives, while remembering what we are and our strength as antiques experts. In the gallery’s programming, we create dialogues between the ancient and contemporary world.

One of these new directions has revolved around craft. At the Venice Biennale, I saw projects using textiles, ceramics… and in recent years we have made a commitment to these disciplines. In 2017, I came across Susana Solano’s jewellery. In December of that year I attended a tribute to her at the Design Hub in Barcelona (Museum del Disseny). Of course, I was aware of her work, but I thought it was out of reach. The interesting thing about this profession is that years can go by from that initial excitement until things actually come about. I also saw some of her work in different editions at ARCO, exhibited by another friend gallery, and from then on I dreamt of collaborating on a project together. When we got in touch, everything was easy and friendly on both sides.

How did you select the pieces for the exhibition?

Susana / We selected the pieces by looking at them digitally first, and then in person. They have gradually woven together, without great difficulty or any hurry.

Susana / I don’t attach that much importance to the material; it’s just a base, the chosen medium. Of course, everything is linked: when you have a piece in mind, the material is incorporated into it from the beginning. You don’t have to make much of an effort. I suppose that, with forty years of practice, it becomes like a handwriting style you acquire, without knowing how you got it.

As Marta Llorente says ‘All works of art are made where thought meets material. They carry time and a creative process inside them: a series of decisions, among which the choice of material is fundamental. Whether it is iron, bronze, rattan reed, high-shine steel or aluminium: all materials seem to be the result of a careful choice. The choice of materials might not be conscious or deliberate, in the moment when the process begins. But it undoubtedly determines the way the piece comes to life.’

Susana / But the idea is never entirely resolved in my mind. If it were resolved, I wouldn’t need to make it, because I would already know what it looked like. It’s the opposite. I work with a certain degree of ambiguity, which then gets defined. Sometimes very quickly, on other occasions very slowly. I prefer to talk about pieces of work, rather than works of art.

 At the moment, you’re working with jewellery.

Susana / To work with jewellery is to go back to the beginning, to smaller, more intimate formats. It allows for a degree of freedom and more immediate results, as though you are drawing with the material… I’ve always been very direct when handling materials. I have a good sense of spatial awareness. And it is easy to store, in terms of volume. As Marta Llorente says, ‘The jewellery we see in the gallery represents a certain isolation, which makes it autonomous, at least for a while. It might become part of other stories, or it might go back to being simply a thing, a beautiful thing we will contemplate like a landscape in the palm of our hand, far removed from any function…’

How does jewellery coexist with other, more sculptural work?

Susana / I’m not sure… Architect friends say one is an extension of the other. I would need more distance to be able to see this clearly.

You make very large pieces, with materials that can be complex to use. Where do you usually work? What does a typical day in your studio look like? 

Susana / That happens in crescendo, very slowly. As the years go by, you dare to make more complex things in a bigger format, as long as the idea calls for it. With some formats, collaboration is needed; that isn’t unusual.

I like handling things because, that way, they have a kind of energy or vibration that isn’t there when it’s all very mechanical. I like the process to be visible. My studio is in Gelida, and it’s freezing there! I can’t work there much in the winter, or in the summer because of the heat. I manage. My latest work was made in my kitchen. The place isn’t important. What you are making shapes the space.

Susana / I work, yes. I do have that bad habit.

You’ve taken part in exhibitions all over. You started out strong in 1987, participating in documenta in Kassel, the São Paulo Art Biennial and the Skulptur Projekte Münster, then continued in 1988, with the Venice Biennale and Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.

Susana / Then those things get forgotten

We’ve interviewed other women with great careers who have also been forgotten by the industry. We can’t work out why that happens…

Susana / The world of introspection, of silence, is one thing. Then the world of marketing, sales, business, is another entirely. One has to learn to move between these worlds. Some artists focus on the gallery; others, on the studio. Everyone does what they can; one way isn’t necessarily better than the other.

Susana / Yes, I’ve not worked very much for a few years. It goes like that sometimes. The idea is not to force situations.

Being a woman and working with this large form of sculpture, have you experienced any prejudices or disadvantages?

Susana / The Art Triangle Barcelona international workshop took place in 1987, led by Anthony Caro, and a lot of American and British women took part. They showed they were able to work with the materials, and where they couldn’t reach, the man next to them could… If I had to start out again, I probably wouldn’t choose sculpture because it’s tiring. But as it’s gradual thing, you get into it.