As part of iMAL Projects Office 2025, Alba is selected for the LAB-oratorium residency in collaboration with LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Gijón, ES) , where she will work on her project "Alphabet of destruction"

‘Alphabets of Destruction’ is an installation project in development that narrates the action of a small cloud that wanders through a ghost virtual world, made up of industrial environments that have recently been demolished or are in the process of being destroyed. The main pillar of the project consists of an interactive tour where the spectator can become the little cloud, and roam at will through these landscapes, epitomes of the anthropocentric ruin. In addition to this virtual world, the project is materialised in a textile installation that envelops the activity of the cloud. The fabrics that make up the installation are large-format prints of the so-called ‘texture files’ or ‘UV maps’ corresponding to the factories shown in the virtual tour. "Texture files" are the documents that give an image and colour to a 3D object and have the particularity that they are made solely and expressly for the computer to interpret them, but not for humans to encounter them. Because of this, ‘texture files’ have a slightly uncanny appearance where, if we zoom in, we can recognise certain patterns and shapes, but the moment we step back the whole picture becomes a strange image which can only be understood through pictorial language, as we are not machines able to decipher it.

Alba Matilla (Avilés, 1998) has a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Vigo and a Master’s degree in Research and Creation in Contemporary Art at the UPV/EHU. She has participated in artist residencies at centres such as Matadero Madrid, Centre d’Art Lo Pati or LABoral Centro de Arte, among others. Her work has been exhibited individually at the EXHIBIT Gallery in Santander (2024) and the Montehermoso Cultural Centre in Vitoria-Gasteiz (2024), and collectively at the Antiguo Instituto Jovellanos Cultural Centre, Gijón (2024); LABoral Centro de Arte, Gijón (2024); Sala Borrón, Oviedo (2024); Factoría Cultural, Avilés (2024); Upper Gallery, UAL, London (2023); at the CTJV Gallery in Monçao, Portugal (2022), and at the Pazo de la Cultura in Pontevedra (2021), among others. She has participated in contemporary art festivals such as ECOS Festival d’arquitectura y territoriu (Asturias, 2024), Eufònic (Tarragona, 2024) or INTERSECCIÓN (A Coruña, 2022). In 2024 she was awarded with the “Asturias Joven” Prize for Plastic Arts.

To discover : https://www.albamatilla.com

Credit for Alba Matilla's portray : IDC for Matadero, 2024
Credit for Alphabet of Destruction visuals : Alba Matilla