WHAT WAS ALREADY THERE

I accompanied Roberto Chartam on a Sunday in August last summer on a car trip starting in Navarrevisca (Ávila) and ending at the CEART in Fuenlabrada. That day I acted as his driver. We thought it was open, and Roberto was very excited, because he was going to take measurements for his Tautologies, a project that this city has happily welcomed but which at that time was just that: a project to be valued. But the CEART, on that hot Sunday in August 2023, was closed and Roberto, let's put it that way, broke down.

And it fell apart because for Roberto, a space in which one cannot transit is a work that cannot be started. Many before me have said that Roberto does not install in rooms or galleries but rather intervenes in them, understands them, accepts them with their virtues and defects, with their corners and columns, with their fire extinguishers and stairs and then, as a second step, he lands with his wool, screws, eyelets and pulleys not to improve said places, but to show us, blinded by modernity, that one place can be a thousand places.

And Roberto respects the nature of the space and does not throw anything away. He uses everything. Any of you who come here these days will have the feeling, like me, that Roberto Chartam has helped us enter this space with dozens of drawings made of ancient wool that simulate doors, windows, entrances or exits, but in any case, places to walk through. If you ever have the opportunity to enjoy the previous models that he usually presents in competitions, you will see that he has also taken the trouble to reproduce miniature replicas of people, as if he wanted to tell us while pointing to one of them from above: “Can’t you see that it’s you? Come on, come in: this place is waiting for you.”

One last fact. That hot Sunday in August 2023, CEART finally opened its doors to us and Roberto walked in happily, like a child, ready to intervene. Who opened them? A security guard who, taking pity on us, allowed us to play at making visible what was already there.

Fernando Sanchez Calvo

Professor of Literature and Theater. Narcís Monturiol Public Institute