NICHOS, CARLOS SAGRERA

“Cavidad más o menos profunda hecha en el espesor de un muro como elemento ornamental, y cuya forma más característica es la de semicilindro abovedado con la base horizontal. Sirve para colocar en ella figuras de objetos decorativos o imágenes religiosas”

“Concavidad en el espesor de un muro, para colocar en ella una estatua, un jarrón u otra cosa”

Applying these concepts within the domestic sphere, we find spaces dedicated to the worship of religious or pagan beliefs. These “niches”, located in the house, have been seen in different times, civilizations, cultures and geographies; such as the “Lararium” in the Roman Domus, the “Butsudan” in the Buddhist culture in Japan, or the private altar in the Western Christian culture… as well as other spaces dedicated to offerings to death and other rites.

However, in a less obvious way, these a priori niches can go unnoticed in the different interior spaces of a house, in a shower, in a closet, against a wall on a shelf with objects, books, images, souvenirs, electrical appliances… with common elements that have acquired a personality through an experience and coexistence that connect us with a memory generally altered by the passage of time to which in some way it comforts us to return. It is about emphasizing these places as daily enablers for introspection where reflecting on various factors such as the passage of time, acquired routines, heritage, cultural, political, social events… through coexistence and almost contemplative use of these places. objects, furniture and spaces intentionally located in the house.

The idea of ​​”niche” and “niche” have been represented throughout the history of painting (at first generally in sacred art), giving rise to the pictorial genre of still life or still life, just like the pictorial representation of the window derived in the pictorial genre of landscape. Well, both the niche and the window function as a frame for what they contain, delimiting a part to be highlighted from the rest of certain elements and giving rise to metapictorial games, the painting within the painting.

Carlos Sagrera