"If I ever did alchemy, it was the only way allowed today, which is to say without knowing it." Marcel Duchamp

Mariana Sarraute, born in 1971, grew up in Barcelona and studied Fine Arts. She is currently working in Mallorca.

Sarraute conceives her work as an alchemical process, which has led her series after series, and piece after piece, to a distillation of the narrative, the form, the line, the color, the space, and the surrounding light.
The canvas works as a Container/Atanor of a process, where element after element the image is built and a light, deep, and transparent space is generated, where all the execution times are compressed into one. The result is a map of the times of the process, of the movement, and where the multiplicity of lines and pictorial planes are orchestrated as a CREATIVE CODE of matter with a life of its own.

In the alchemical conception of her work, Sarraute makes incursions into ceramic sculpture, creating process containers, retorts, and stills, which stimulate the artist’s most playful and performative part.
Her work has become an installation, and the wall has been integrated as an essential part of the work. The wall and the space that frames the work are conceived as the place where the work takes place, as a retort where the spectator is immersed. The light and the surrounding space are incorporated into the work, generating multiple contemplative experiences as the light varies over time, or the spectator moves around the piece. This process has led the artist to integrate the vibration and impact of RGB light from electronic devices projected onto the work, affecting and framing part of the work.

Mariana Sarraute has focused her work in recent years on a series of pictorial and sculptural works resulting from her research into aspects of the Western esoteric tradition such as Kabbalah or alchemy, and her work as a website programmer. These references have accompanied the artist throughout her practice.