Theoretical of bread (El pueblo español tiene un camino que conduce a una Estrella), 2019

Iron, artisan bread.
Total measurements of the installation: 175 x 290 x 230 cm.

The sculpture that Alberto Sánchez created for the Spanish Pavilion built in Paris in 1937, entitled El pueblo español tiene un camino que conduce a una estrella (The Spanish people have a path that leads to a star), has sometimes been compared to a cactus or to the shape of a Castilian field with its ‘furrows, hills and hillocks’. However, we could also relate it to bread, not only because of the shape of the sculpture, which looks like it has been kneaded, or because Alberto was a baker in his youth, but also because it was born from a wheat millstone.

Theoretical of bread consists of a set of eight sculptural pieces of different heights made from loaves of bread. These heights represent the Spanish proletariat, whose average height was very low due to the conditions of poverty they suffered throughout history (1). The sum of the eight heights is equal to 12.5 metres, which is the same length as Alberto’s sculpture.

(1) In the 1930s, Spanish measurements were the lowest in Europe: men had an average height of 1.65 meters and women 1.55 meters. In addition, there were differences between rich and poor, as well as between irrigated and rain-fed areas. For example, a man in the Salamanca district of Madrid was four centimetres taller than a worker in Vallecas, and an irrigated worker was two centimetres taller than a rainfed worker.

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Exhibition:
Theoretics of bread
Rosa Santos Gallery. Valencia. From 20 September to 22 November 2019.

Exhibition:
22 finestres (22 Windows)
Curated by Gisel Noè and David Santaeulària
M/A/C Presó, Mataró. From 22 January to 20 March 2022.

Exhibition:
Resistance. The Power of the Image. Europalia Spain.
Curated by Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo and Sam Steverlynck.
S.M.A.K. Ghent. From 29 November 2025 to 8 March 2026.