Redentora

“Redentora” is an audiovisual installation articulated around a zoetrope integrated into a metallic structure shaped like a temple, with seven accesses and a dome. It was realized for the Festival LuzMadrid during the days 12, 13 and 14 of March 2026 in the Glorieta de San Víctor, Madrid.

The image is generated through an analog projection system based on the rotary movement of the zoetrope. Taking advantage of the rotation, El Niño de Elche has designed a sound space using whips, cowbells and other elements that when striking or being struck generate the characteristic sound surrounding the piece.

Twenty-one painted glasses, arranged on the perimeter of a drum, spin synchronized with the flickering of seven spotlights. This mechanism projects onto seven holographic gauzes an animation visible from both the interior and the exterior of the installation.

The frames have been made on glass support, using acrylic paint, bitumen of Judea and bulb lacquer.

Surrounding the machine, seven “contemporary” confessionals configure the exterior perimeter. They are assemblages of wooden pieces that evoke structures of ecclesiastical origin. These pieces are connected to each other through micro-perforated metallic sheets, closing the set.

The metallic dome that completes the installation is composed of two bodies. The lower one is built with galvanized steel bars joined by scaffold connectors ; its seven doors, finished with triangular tympanums, allow for the tensioning of the holographic gauzes onto which the animation is projected.

Over this body rises a dome formed by aluminum bars joined with scaffold clamps. Its geometry refers to the structures prior to the development of Renaissance domes. Inside this dome, an LED lighting installation and suspended sculptural elements are also integrated: hands with arm extensions made from different types of recycled plastic.

The set is culminated with a lantern in the shape of a seven-pointed star.

The text of “Redentora” has been written by Ángela Segovia.

All these words… redeem, redeemer, kill, kill, slaughterhouse, slaughterhouse, slaughterhouse, blood, blood, blood, flesh, executioner, charity, mercy, fire, justice, art, leper, beggar, purify, purify, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacred, sacred, violence…

All these words spinning in a zoetrope, a toy, all these words spinning, swapping, swapping a little more, a little more, until they touch each other, until they transform, repeating incessantly. REDENTORA is all those words, everything that is in them, what there could be.

All those images repeating, spinning, transforming, touching each other. The body of a flayed pig, hanging from a hook, the body of a Christ descending from the cross, faithful hoisting a golden calf, sinning against God, or else, workers hoisting their victim, the animal they must kill to feed the people.

All those symbols repeating and mutating, repeating and transforming, until they turn over on themselves, until they become the opposite of what they started out being. It is said that even prehistoric art was a way of communicating with the divine. I do not know, for sure, in ancient traditions such as the Egyptian ones, cults were surrounded by a magnificent artistic production. Certainly, Christianity, from the beginning, also adopted an artistic production linked to cults. Spiritual communication and teaching of dogma were merging and artists put their creation at the service of a common good.