Dadalite is a collision between Macarena Liendo and Jordi Bielsa. Macarena studied Fine Arts at National University of Córdoba and University of Barcelona. She learned papier mâché from her grandma Nonina. Nonina had been taught by Garcia Lorca’s muse, Margarita Xirgu, theater, puppetry and papier-mâché, during her exile in Argentina. Macarena brought her wonderful paper creations to Barcelona many years later. Jordi has worked as a bronze foundry sculptor and as a master printmaker in London and Barcelona. He studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona and Goldsmiths College, University of London. He learned the important things from Joaquim Viñolas, painter and filmmaker of the Informalism.

We work the tempera techniques of the 15th century with modern synthetic pigments. This is something unusual that provokes a strong visual impact. Tempera painting is a combination of aqueous with non-aqueous vehicles, such as egg, curds or gum with water or/and stand oil, turpentine, dammar, etc. There are many possible variations. Tempera is very strong, the particles of pigment are glued very close together and the quality of the colors is terrific. It is not suitable for easel painting as it lacks elasticity but it works very well in our paper sculptures. An optimal balance between adhesion, cohesion and capillarity should be mastered. And surfaces have to be specifically prepared. Traditional grounds are made of Rabbit Skin Glue and Chalk from Champagne.

Paper is a support for all kinds of procedures and experimentation. It allows us to constantly develop new ideas. We recycle cardboards made of Kraft pulp. It is a strong pulp almost free of lignin. Most of the paper we use is recycled and most of the glues are organic

All pigments we work with are excellently lightfast, and of the highest quality available. We prefer modern synthetic inorganic pigments such as cobalt and ultramarines. We do not like historical or exotic ones. We work with a wide range of binders and pigments. We apply them locally, not mixing everything. We love variation, and to let the materials express themselves. This is something probably related to both, antiquity and modernity.

In art history we were told the revolutionary invention of paint tubes. Color paintings were standardized and put into tubes in the XIX century. Drying times were equalized and a creamy consistency was achieved at the cost of stabilizers and adulterants. We are not interested in tonal painting, and mixture of color paints get generally dull. Cézanne would work this way: defining the far away planes dirtying with a complementary. It is not the same to work with, for instance, an orange pigment than to mix red and yellow. Seurat’s partitive painting made it evident. We do not conceive painting as a reduction and therefore, we are not interested in having a small amount of color paints to produce the whole range of everything. We work against this reduction. The production of modern synthetic pigments was a bigger revolution than the paint tubes.

We are sensitive to the fragmentation coming from modernity and the avant-gardes. Fragmentation of vision and form, leading to experimentation. Also sensitive to the richness of the techniques coming from the old masters. They would treat everything locally, using a specific binder for a specific pigment. Their gold and powdered stones were precious, not something to be mixed. We reject hierarchies and are not interested in painting like the old masters, applying fixed rules, schematization, or outdated products. But there is a powerful potential in them, in their exquisite. Also, we love our pigments and paint colors, we collect them. And we would like to sell our works also as a collectibles.