Eslava

Abstract

Once images disappeared, could we think they could return to surface, refloat, reconstruct through memory?  For better or for worse, it acts as malleable chewing gum of changing form, varying according to whom interprets it.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the building located at Calle Arenal No. 11, then known as Teatro Eslava, suffered a spectacular fire, which only left remains of a damaged dome. The following pages aim to propose a possible reconstruction of these destroyed frescoes, escaping from mere historiographical documentation. They would rather look at the document as a guiding principle that would enable a series of changing scenes. Hence, would it be possible to redraw some missing frescoes —of which only one image is preserved— from the drawings and sketches of theater plays interpreted at Teatro Eslava shortly before the catastrophic event occurred? The intuited drawings used as background of these pages served to redraw memories on water. The result was a film: Estrella.