- Visual Art
- Interdisciplinary Project
Echoes of Stolen Shadows
Isabel de Andres Velasco
3 July 2026 19:00–23:00
4 July 2026 10:00–23:00
5 July 2026 10:00–18:00
Why are trees cut down in cities? And what happens to us when they disappear?
This project approaches the city as a territory shaped by shifting boundaries between past and present—between what once existed and what is later covered or erased. It began in June 2025 as a personal research into how unjustified tree removal in public space is often followed by processes of material erasure, frequently sealed under concrete.
On March 21, 2025, in San Cristóbal de Segovia, a 30-year-old pine was cut down during the renovation of a public square, without consulting the neighbours. The official justification was that its roots might lift the pavement in the future. With its removal, both the tree and its shadow disappeared, altering the spatial memory of the place.
That day, my father, Juan Antonio de Andrés, witnessed the felling and later published a chronicle in the local magazine, personifying the tree and the bonds it would lose with the people—especially children—who had grown up around it. Reading his text from Berlin, I experienced a rupture between a lived past and a present already being materially rewritten.
On June 8, I created a public space intervention on the site where the shadow had vanished. Forty-four cardboard silhouettes traced the outline of the absent shadow, reintroducing a fragile boundary between what had been erased and what could still be remembered.
Building on this gesture, the project explores how light can carry memory. Using projected light filtered through sculptural forms, I recreate silhouettes of shadows that no longer exist. As viewers move among permeable fabric screens, borders are no longer fixed lines but temporal thresholds, where the memory of trees unjustifiably removed from public space briefly resurfaces within the present.
This project approaches the city as a territory shaped by shifting boundaries between past and present—between what once existed and what is later covered or erased. It began in June 2025 as a personal research into how unjustified tree removal in public space is often followed by processes of material erasure, frequently sealed under concrete.
On March 21, 2025, in San Cristóbal de Segovia, a 30-year-old pine was cut down during the renovation of a public square, without consulting the neighbours. The official justification was that its roots might lift the pavement in the future. With its removal, both the tree and its shadow disappeared, altering the spatial memory of the place.
That day, my father, Juan Antonio de Andrés, witnessed the felling and later published a chronicle in the local magazine, personifying the tree and the bonds it would lose with the people—especially children—who had grown up around it. Reading his text from Berlin, I experienced a rupture between a lived past and a present already being materially rewritten.
On June 8, I created a public space intervention on the site where the shadow had vanished. Forty-four cardboard silhouettes traced the outline of the absent shadow, reintroducing a fragile boundary between what had been erased and what could still be remembered.
Building on this gesture, the project explores how light can carry memory. Using projected light filtered through sculptural forms, I recreate silhouettes of shadows that no longer exist. As viewers move among permeable fabric screens, borders are no longer fixed lines but temporal thresholds, where the memory of trees unjustifiably removed from public space briefly resurfaces within the present.
Biography
Isabel de Andres Velasco
My practice is grounded in a process-driven exploration of materials and the belief that form should follow the behaviour of the material itself. Trained as an industrial designer in Spain and later in the UK, where I completed a master’s degree focused on materials and making processes, I moved away from screen-based production, allowing my hands to become the most faithful interpreters of my thoughts.
Based in Berlin since 2019, I combine my artistic practice with work in art production and industrial design. This dual position grounds my work in fabrication while leaving space for experimentation. At the centre of my practice is concrete, understood not as a disposable construction material but as liquid stone, through which I explore memory and fractures within the collective body.
Based in Berlin since 2019, I combine my artistic practice with work in art production and industrial design. This dual position grounds my work in fabrication while leaving space for experimentation. At the centre of my practice is concrete, understood not as a disposable construction material but as liquid stone, through which I explore memory and fractures within the collective body.
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