Mutineers (Amotinados)

José Antonio Serrano – Mayor of Murcia

Bodies that seem to emerge from within themselves, faces that slip away from the soul, or the serene stillness of beings beneath the setting of an enigmatic universe—a prison.

Light and shadow intertwine in the various installations that make up Amotinados, the latest work by Yecla-born artist Lidó Rico at the Cárcel Vieja Contemporary Culture Center.

An artist who, for over three decades, has been exploring the human being—its identity, its body, and everything that surrounds it. All of it leads us to a recurring theme in his work: the artist’s own inquiry into the ethical and aesthetic, and the inner conflict of existing in a society governed by the hegemony of rationalism.

A powerful way to discover the poetics of this artist—who gradually immerses us in a different way of understanding reality, his reality—is through the confrontation that comes with realizing we have a body without fully grasping the crucial nuance that, in fact, we are a body. Many bodies that, I would dare say, make us feel a sense of solitude through their presence.

Visiting Amotinados evokes a rare blend of sensations—reflection, strength, forcefulness, and passion—that transports us back to a time when the walls of the Cárcel Vieja Center were inhabited.