La Vida Breve (Ficus carica)

Álvaro Urbano’s The Brief Life (Ficus carica) invites viewers to imagine a possible encounter between Mexican architect Luis Barragán and Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. While both have walked the same cobblestone streets and meandering alleys of Granada in 1924, the historical records offer no evidence of them meeting. Through the medium of metal sculptures, naturalistically crafted to resemble three withering fig trees and ripe pomegranates littering the floor, Urbano presents a poetic portrayal of the imagined meeting. Through subtle visual cues, the artist invites us to contemplate the clandestine nature of forbidden love and mutual attraction, deftly navigating the complex terrain of queer identity and repression, drawing parallels between Lorca’s unapologetic embrace of his homosexuality and Barragán’s more subdued expression of same-sex desire. Against the backdrop of a conservative era marked by political upheaval, Lorca’s tragic fate—he was assassinated by fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War—stands as a stark reminder of the perils of living openly in a world rife with prejudice and persecution.

Named after Manuel de Falla’s 1904 opera The Brief Life, the work serves as a tribute to the enduring power of artistic reverence, transcending the confines of time and space. As Urbano delves into Barragán’s legacy, he uncovers echoes of Lorca’s poetic vision woven into the very fabric of the architect’s designs. From the intricately tiled floors to the verdant foliage that adorns the balconies of the Casa-Jardín Ortega, the architect’s residence in Mexico City, each element bears witness to the profound influence of Granada on Barragán’s aesthetic sensibilities. As he had remarked, Huerta de San Vicente in Granada—García- Lorca’s family home—“contained what a successful garden should contain: nothing less than the entire universe.” Urbano’s art embodies the same principle: it creates a garden to encompass the entire universe.

(Text written by TBA21 and used as wall label in the exhibition "The Ecologies of Peace", C3A, Córdoba, 2024)