The Absent Library is an artwork around the transmission of knowledge through books. It is a tribute to all those books that have disappeared throughout history. An absence that weights with an overwhelming density when considering all those books which have been censored, burned, neglected, looted, stolen, pruned... Making them the greatest enemy of totalitarian regimes and any critical or divergent thinking.
In this work, Antònia del Río departs from the idea of the book as a memory of the world and the Library as its warehouse.
In 2016, Antonia del Río has been awarded the Fundació Banc Sabadell prize in the book fair Arts Libris (Barcelona). She has also received an award for the best stand at the Swab Contemporary Art Fair in Barcelona, awarded by the Sabadell Bank Foundation for Antonia’s individual project Sicart: story of a career. Notes about gallerism and the art systems.
In 2011, she obtained the ART <30 prize from Sala Parès and Galeria Trama in Barcelona. In 2010, she obtained a grant for artistic production from the Suñol Foundation in collaboration with the Master Artistic Productions and Research of the University of Barcelona, ??where she began working on the Absent Library.
Antonia has participated in several curatorial projects such as Tabula Rasa or inability to construct a generation, curated by Pau Waelder and Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta or Cathedrals in the Chapel, curated by Joana Hurtado Matheu (both in Spain). She has exhibited internationally in institutions such as Es Baluard (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Palma, Mallorca), Muu gallery (Helsinki, Finland) and Hilvaria Studio's , (Foundations Kunst, The Netherlands), among others.
