Aquelarre VI

"Witches play a special role in Marina Roca’s art. These creatures had a great deal of knowledge about nature, trees, and plants. And they stand for the instinctive, the animalistic and the peculiar, in other words: a lot of the things that are of interest to Marina. “It was joyful to be a witch,” she says; she wants to rehabilitate these somewhat infamous beings – also in the context of feminism – and wrest the subject matter from oblivion. This peculiar world culminates in the Witches’ Sabbath, to which Marina dedicated her Aquelarres series with the witches whizzing happily through the air. For these works, she first formed small figures out of clay, then photographed them and used the photos as a template for her paintings. They are the only figures that she represents in a naturalistic way. However, they have goat heads, which is a small side blow against Goya, who did not like the witches, they were too irrational for him. In his Witches’ Sabbaths, he has them, according to tradition, led by a billy goat, the devil. In Marina’s paintings, the witches do not need such guidance, they are the male goat themselves."

Written by Ernst Busche, art critic, curator, and founder of Busche Kunst Gallery, Berlin.