Parra & Romero is pleased to present Almudena Lobera’s (Madrid, 1984) first solo exhibition at the gallery in Madrid.
In the artist’s multidisciplinary practice, the deconstruction, reinterpretation and denial of language takes on special importance and is constantly resignified. On this occasion, Rest takes as an object of study and highlights the concept of silence through a series of newly produced works that refer to a reflection on dialogue based on the silence/sound dichotomy. It calls for listening, as a kind of care or self-care, paying special attention to non-verbal communication. Thus, the artist displays a succession of silent presences through drawing, sculpture, installation and performance.
In English, the musical concept of silence is translated as Rest and is marked in musical notation by the Latin word Tacet. In 1952, John Cage marked a milestone in musical composition with his work 4’33’’, which consisted of three movements spread over 4 minutes and 33 seconds of presumed silence. The first recorded use of this term was in 1724. Tacet (which in Latin literally means “it is silent”) appears in musical notation to indicate that a voice or instrument, while present, does not sound. There is, therefore, a substantial difference between silence and rest, a difference that lies in the intentionality of each verb, in what we might call its projection of will. In music, rest has value and also materializes that projection—silent, in this case.
Thus, rest ≠ silence. It’s also known that [emptiness ≠ nothing, if there is such a thing as nothing]. Perhaps the English term rest could be more appropriate since, effectively, it indicates the instrument’s rest while it remains present. As John Cage demonstrates, absolute silence is impossible. Moreover, within these so-called silences or breaks, there exists a second, less obvious level of extra-musical communication, so to speak.
Ironically, the best way we have found to approach, let’s say, near zero—absolute silence—is through sound. The Fast Fourier Transform, in its inverse form, is the mathematical basis that calculates the inverse of each component of a sound wave, enabling its cancellation. Thus, noise-cancelling headphones filter ambient sound and emit its negative wave: noise – noise ≈ 0.
While Western culture typically regards silence as nothingness, an empty set, other societies, like Japan, perceive a clear materiality in the void. For instance, the Japanese concept of Haragei would be difficult to translate into Spanish. It literally means something like “the art of the belly,” but it truly refers to the deeply ingrained ability in Eastern cultures to communicate without saying anything—to make oneself understood through silence, restraint, and rest. In these cultures, silences cannot be “filled” because they are already full of meaning.
In contrast, Western society harbors a deep disdain for emptiness. In this sense, we are still very much a Rococo society. Radio, television, YouTube videos, and ultimately TikTok reject silence entirely. In a continuous cycle of failed entertainment, silence is simply out of the question.
At a purely etymological level, the word “rest” comes from the Old English ræst, which, in its Germanic root, means “league” or “mile” in reference to the distance traveled from a starting point before one rests. Thus, rest should not be understood as a milestone (the moment of rest) but as a journey (the distance between two points). Ironically, the only musical context where rest might fit is within silence itself—from the static of an untuned television, once thought to be historical proof of the Big Bang, to the crackling sound of a needle touching vinyl seconds before the music begins.
This dialogue between sound and silence is brought to life in the Rest series, an installation of drawings that opens the exhibition. The work evokes an anechoic chamber, a space that absorbs sound and encourages deep introspection. Hands are depicted as if “taming” audible ranges, or referencing the pulse as a metaphor for the physical presence of sound—both visible and tangible.
Moving through the exhibition, Eternal Silence emerges, a sculptural installation of 34 stacked books whose spines contain encrypted fragments of the last Morse code message. The closed books prevent access to the text, and Morse code remains undecipherable, illustrating the limitations and silences embedded in language.
In Scores for Silent Reading, a series of drawings inspired by Paul Virilio’s The Aesthetics of Disappearance and musical notation, Lobera manipulates typography to obscure legibility. By cutting out the central “eye” of the letters, she transforms the text into a visual sign, emphasizing the importance of interpretation while also acknowledging the gaps and silences in communication.
Preserving 7:59 minutes (Beau Mot Plage Loop) reflects on the human desire to capture sound’s fleeting immateriality. These drawings, housed in small jars, map out the sound waves of the song Beau Mot Plage by Isoleé. The creative process was permeated by the song, using the looping technique to alternate between reflection and writing, making an attempt to “preserve” sound’s essence.
The exhibition concludes with the installation-performance Sixty-Fourth Rest, where viewers witness an interview with a plant, whose “thoughts” are interpreted through touch by a translator. Set in a space resembling a TV set, this poetic conversation explores silence, solitude, and empathy toward other life forms. The script, composed of fragments from authors like Jean-Dominique Bauby and Walter Benjamin, weaves a reflection on the challenges of translation and communication beyond words, paying homage to John Baldessari’s Teaching a Plant the Alphabet (1972).
Almudena Lobera lives and works in Madrid. Her works are part of more than twenty collections worldwide, she has carried out numerous artistic residencies, among which the scholarship from the Spanish Academy in Rome stands out, and her work has been exhibited in institutions such as The Bronx Museum, Fundación Juan March, La Casa Encendida or Centro Centro among many others.