Those stopping at each one of Marta Diez´
By Ester de Izaguirre
Those stopping at each one of Marta Diez´ masks and reaching the critical stature of Rubén Vela, the great poet who expressed through his poetry that masks are among the earlier representations of “Mankind´s religious adventure”
The word mask has several meanings:
-Buffoonery: a mask made of cardboard, cloth or wire, often ludicrous, for placing before one´s face in order not to be recognized.
- Excuse, concealment, veil, deceipt.
I cannot but remember the beginnings of Greek theatre and its dionysiacal effusions. The true protagonist in the origin of Greek theatre was mask - naturally after the megaphone to make one´s voice louder and the other ways of representing Antiphone and King OEdipus to the world.
As from the VI century B.C. Grecian artists wore a mask in order to be somebody else. A mask was a soul, an added, different identity. A mask divided a person into two.
Masks are at the service of man´s unfolding. From them and through them the gaze and the voice of the other being emerges.
What about a mask in itself – not at the service of the actor, the person? This independence in the definition of masks had never stricken me before reading Rubén Vela´s work and watching Marta Dìez´s creations at her atelier, nor their function, the beauty and expressivity of a mask in itself when it is a work of art - as are Marta Díez´s.
Upon watching her work and noticing the beauty and mystery of a face gazing without eyes, upon noticing that mystery had replaced the glance, I was able to value the art of that which is neither understandable nor explainable. This enigma cannot manifest itself with any mask whatsoever fitting a face. This mystery may be glimpsed through art, beauty, shape and colour.
Who is hidden behind those empty eye-sockets? A realm of beauty. Not for lack of eyes – they are facing inner realities and watching us. They are there, but we cannot see them because reality sets a boundary. Here, viewers. Over there, the whole mystery of beauty. Entering Marta Díez´world does not cause us to feel in the mood of an exhibition of painting, or one of sculpture, nor is it the mood of beautiful poems being recited, or one´s being surrounded by Mozart´s music. It is the disquieting beauty of mystery, the miracle producing symbols, unexpressed feelings.
Her masks and sculptures suggest the art of man and his roots, together with his outer nature and his own human nature, as he caught the earlier mysterious shapes for appealing to the gods. They do not just display features and colours for the sake of reaching the whole image. In each of her works there is a synthesis of beauty. The mystery carried by man is a huge human landscape. So mysterious is it, that it will let each one see not only the puzzle of the other one, but also their unbelievable concealment. In every man´s eyes we can detect sadness and joy, triumph, defeat, each one of the infinite feelings. In Marta Díez´s masks, eyes are abyss signs of nothingness and allness . That night of the soul makes one shudder - a labyrinth with no way out, a door closed so that only the beauty of mystery may be seen.
A mask cannot watch us, but its blindness will guess at us.
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Ester de Izaguirre. Wrote s poem as a dedication to Marta Díez and her work. She is a poet and presides over the Asociacion Americana de Poesia. She was awarded the Silver Feather (Pluma Plata) by the Pen Club.