Linarejos Moreno – Madrid, 1974


In the face of the impending demolition of the factory, I summoned the wailers so that they wept, so that they performed the theater of pain caused by the inevitable death of the space. All operatives were assembled for the funeral banquet which, following tradition, was presided over by the deceased: the industrial building at the time it went out of business, just before it was brought down. Lastly, I created the installation art piece Lacrymatories, with threads and black hair spinning a spiderweb among the machines. This funeral installation was built in a ritual manner, with the intention of remaining inside the building during the demolition and until it perished. Placed within, its mission was to accompany the deceased on its journey to the hereafter.
 
But with the arrival of the crisis, the hasty conversion of the industrial area remained paralyzed. The workers went to work in other factories and the wreck remained forgotten in a sea of uncertainty. Then I asked the women of the workers, dressed as members of a religious brotherhood  to weave a spider’s web amidst the machinery. Afterwards, in the dark they used scissors to cut the tensed strands while the flash and camera recorded the action. After that they left, in silence.