“Lapis specularis. The underground light” — Exhibition of the Spanish artist Miguel Angel Blanco

Cervantes-Sofia Institute and The National Archaeological Institute with a museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences present the exhibition

“Lapis specularis. Underground light”

of the Spanish artist Miguel Angel Blanco

30.06. – 26.09.2021

The exhibition “Lapis specularis. The Underground Light ”by the Spanish artist Miguel Angel Blanco presents works made by Lapis specularis. It is a selenite or moonstone – a highly transparent crystallized gypsum that caused a revolution in the daily life of the ancient Romans. Miguel Angel Blanco used this amazing stone as an artistic material for the first time and set a double goal: on the one hand, to study its plastic and poetic qualities, and on the other hand, to draw our attention back to Ancient History.

This exhibition has already visited the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, the National Museum of Roman Art in Merida, and with the help of the Instituto Cervantes reached the Spanish Academy in Rome and the Church of Saint Eulalia de los Catalanes in Palermo. Through twenty-four books-boxes and a series of chests (compositions in iron boxes), made with lapis specularis, the exhibition pays homage to the journey of this amazing stone from Spain to different parts of the Empire and recreates not only its practical applications but also its ritual uses. The approach is visionary rather than archaeological. Now the exhibition arrives in Sofia, in ancient Serdica, to illuminate the Roman remains preserved in the National Archaeological Museum.

Nature is the working environment of Miguel Angel Blanco (Madrid, 1958). The most significant project in his life and work “Library of the Forest” began in 1986 and consists of books boxes that contain natural elements (plants, minerals, animals, insects), placed under glass and accompanied by pages that get acquainted with the materials used with the help of drawings, engravings or photographic impressions. For the author, the box books are a microcosm, new landscapes, expressing nature in all its phenomenology and in all its geographical and symbolic richness.