The CCA Andratx Artist-in-Residence Program presents

GEDANKENEXPERIMENTE, Anna Belén’s first solo exhibition in Spain, developed

during an intensive residency on site.

​

Belén works with painting as a material field structured by accumulation, transfer, and

transformation. Oil paint, ink, raw pigments, varnish, and metals such as copper, gold, and brass are combined with rainwater and saltwater. These do not hold as stable components but as substances that continue to react, shift, and change over time.

​

Her work operates between control and contingency. Materials are introduced but not fully contained. While Belén sets initial conditions, the final surfaces are shaped by processes that exceed her direct control. In one instance, a boot print, initially accidental, is later fixed through gilding. The works register transformation rather than fixed composition. They are accumulated,

altered, and at times disrupted.

​

Across the works, physical processes remain closely linked to psychological states. Layers build, collapse, and re-emerge in ways that echo unstable structures of matter, perception, and memory.

What is formed is never fully fixed; images hold briefly before shifting into new configurations. They suggest spatial depth and structure, at times recalling geological formations or architectural fragments, yet remain open and unresolved. In this sense, the paintings do not represent specific

places, but map shifting internal states in which thoughts form, overlap, and recede.

​

The title GEDANKENEXPERIMENTE (thought experiments) reflects this logic. The works are structured as propositions in which material and perception are set into motion, and resolved through decisions of retention and control.

 

“GEDANKENEXPERIMENTE is a space where thinking is tested rather than resolved. Painting is a way of entering that space, not to illustrate ideas, but to think with materials, time, and the body,” says Belén.

​