12 Aug Alba López, gallerist at Néboa: “We believe that art should activate not only the gaze, but also the body, memory, and emotion.”

From your personal perspective and as a gallerist, what does it mean to be part of ABERTO?
Being part of ABERTO means becoming integrated into a collective conversation that transcends the physical limits of the gallery. As an independent project with an identity deeply tied to the context in which we work, it is essential for us to feel part of a broader, interconnected, and dynamic cultural ecosystem. It’s an opportunity to open our doors within a network, to bring our work into dialogue with other realities, and to actively contribute to an artistic community that is enriched through collaboration and mutual support.

If you had to explain ABERTO to someone who has never experienced it, how would you describe it?
ABERTO is the simultaneous opening of the exhibition season in Galicia. It’s a starting point and an open map that invites visitors to explore the region through the works of its artists and the spaces that host them. No prior knowledge is needed—just the willingness to be guided by curiosity and the desire to see, listen, and reflect.

Do you think ABERTO could become a new form of tourism in Galicia?
ABERTO proposes a different kind of tourism, based on an emotional, creative, and sustainable experience. It moves away from fast and superficial consumption, inviting visitors to look with attention and respect, and to engage consciously with the places and the people. It’s a form of tourism that not only passes through spaces but inhabits and feels them, fostering a deeper and more authentic connection with Galicia.

For someone visiting from outside who wants to experience ABERTO as a route, what would you recommend?
I’d recommend enjoying it without rushing. Although ABERTO takes place over specific days, the exhibitions remain open for weeks, making it ideal to plan the visit with flexibility, leaving room for surprise and spontaneous encounters. Experiencing ABERTO is more than following an itinerary—it’s immersing yourself in a vital, open, and enriching experience that invites you to discover Galicia with a curious and receptive outlook.

What value do you see in connecting and working in a network with other Galician galleries through this project?
It’s essential. Working in a network allows us to share, learn, and exchange perspectives. It reminds us that we are not alone, and that together we are stronger in defending respectful, committed, and transformative ways of working.

Would you say that ABERTO helps strengthen a common identity for contemporary art in Galicia?
Rather than a single identity, I would say it strengthens a shared will: to showcase multiple voices, accents, and ways of being in the world, putting them in relation and in dialogue.

What would you like to see happen in this particular edition?
I would like this edition to attract a diverse audience—from the general public to collectors, cultural sector professionals, teachers, and students. I hope all of them visit the galleries to establish direct contact with contemporary creation and discover that current art is accessible, stimulating, and close, without requiring prior knowledge. I’d like the experience to leave a lasting impression, showing that contemporary art can enrich our daily lives, offering new ways to think, feel, and relate to our surroundings and society.

What artist or proposal would you like to see in future editions?
Artists who place care, the body, the territory, or affection at the center. Proposals that question traditional forms of exhibition and expand the idea of the gallery.

What most attracted you to “a sweaty dispersal into the fog” to present it at NÉBOA?
What especially drew me in was how her work turns the body into a living surface that, besides leaving traces, is constantly shaped by what it comes into contact with. The body is shown as a continuous flow of reciprocity with matter—especially with plant life—and the work creates a sensitive space where this interaction takes form and presence.

The title a sweaty dispersal into the fog borrows words from ecofeminist Astrida Neimanis, who in Bodies of Water proposes understanding the body as a “body of water”: porous, interdependent, and in constant dialogue with its surroundings, dissolving like sweat into fog. This posthuman and feminist perspective runs through all of Andrea’s work, breaking traditional hierarchies between the human and the non-human, and suggesting ways of coexistence and care based on mutual transformation.

How would you describe Andrea Davila Rubio’s proposal to someone who doesn’t know her work?
A sweaty dispersal into the fog is a sculptural journey exploring the bonds between body and environment through tube-based forms that function as both structure and metaphor: figures of transit, connection, and absorption. Using materials such as fiberglass, stainless steel, and elements gathered from the landscape, Andrea creates a space evoking a “liquid choreography”: bodies that perspire, evaporate, and allow themselves to be permeated by light, water, and salt air.

In this installation, the human body is not an absolute center but part of a shared system with the surrounding matter. Sweat, fog, salt, damp hair—all are part of a common language of fusion and coexistence. The work invites a sensory and conceptual experience that challenges traditional categories, promoting an ethical and committed perspective on the relationships between the human and the non-human.

The work was born from a residency at Atelier Mondial–Institute Art Gender Nature in Basel. How do you think that experience influenced the final result?
Andrea Davila Rubio’s international experience has been fundamental to the development of her work. Her residencies at Atelier Mondial–Institute Art Gender Nature in Basel, the Leblanc Foundation in Brussels, and Matadero Madrid have given her spaces for dialogue and experimentation with artists and thinkers from diverse disciplines. These multidisciplinary and multicultural environments have enriched her creative process, broadening her perspective and deepening her exploration of the relationship between body, matter, and landscape. This wealth of perspectives translates into a complex, sensitive work that is fully connected to the contemporary challenges we explore at NÉBOA.

Andrea uses materials such as fiberglass, stainless steel, saltwater, and images from the landscape. What role do these elements play in the exhibition’s narrative?
Each material carries symbolic and conceptual value beyond its physical function. Stainless steel, cold and resistant, acts as a structure and as a symbol of containment, while fiberglass brings fragility and transparency. These contrasts reflect the tensions between hardness and vulnerability, as well as the subtle and structural violences that permeate our society. The elements gathered from the landscape provide a direct connection with the natural environment, establishing a dialogue between the industrial and the organic that invites deep reflection on our relationship with territory and body.

The exhibition evokes a “liquid choreography” of bodies in a misty, salty landscape. How is the audience meant to experience this sensation?
The spatial arrangement of the work invites the audience to move, circle around, and almost inhabit the sculptural space, becoming an active part of this liquid choreography. As visitors move among the pieces, they feel the movement, dissolution, and connection between bodies and environment, experiencing a sensation of fluidity and permeability that goes beyond the visual.

How important is it for you that the work engages with the sensory beyond the visual?
It’s essential. We believe that art should activate not only the gaze, but also the body, memory, and emotion. The sensory opens deep pathways to connect with what the work proposes, allowing the artistic experience to be integral and transformative—engaging all the senses and generating a more intimate and lived connection with the message and the space.

The project invites us to rethink our way of inhabiting and caring for the environment from the body. How do you think art can provoke this kind of reflection in the viewer?
Art has the ability to shift our perspective and open questions. When a work engages the body and the environment, it places us in a different, more vulnerable, and attentive position, from which it’s easier to rethink habits and perceptions. This sensory link acts as a catalyst, inviting us to question our ways of inhabiting the world and our responsibility toward the environment. In this way, art is not only a space for aesthetic contemplation, but also an active agent for rethinking daily practices and perceptions, stimulating an open dialogue on ecology, the body, and collective memory.

What connections does the exhibition establish between the human and the non-human?
The exhibition establishes a dialogue in which the human and the non-human are presented as interdependent parts of the same ecosystem. It makes visible how the human body is intrinsically connected with the territory, and how materials—both organic and industrial—carry memory and evidence of our interactions with the environment. This perspective breaks traditional hierarchies, promoting a more inclusive and respectful view of all forms of existence, which is essential for rethinking our relationships with the natural world from an ethical and committed stance.

Do you think proposals like this can help give more visibility to Galician contemporary art from a more international perspective?
Undoubtedly. Projects like Andrea Davila Rubio’s significantly contribute to positioning Galician contemporary art in a global context. Her artistic language, characterized by rigorous conceptual research and a deep dialogue with the territory, builds bridges between the local and the universal. This kind of proposal offers a complex, multifaceted reading that, without losing its roots in Galician sensibility, engages with contemporary issues of global scope, such as ecology and the body.

Do you plan for NÉBOA to continue hosting projects that explore the relationship between art, ecology, and the body?
Yes, this thematic line is one of the central pillars of our programming. At NÉBOA, we understand contemporary art as a critical tool to explore and question the complex relationships we maintain with our environment and with ourselves. Our commitment is to foster projects that address these topics from a multidisciplinary perspective, integrating conceptual rigor and aesthetic sensitivity. In this way, we seek not only to strengthen an artistic discourse that engages with contemporary urgencies around ecology and the body, but also to promote critical thinking that encourages new ways of inhabiting and caring for our territory from an ethical and responsible outlook.