« What if we make a lung out of canvas through which we can breathe? A place where the memory can see further than commemorative and devotional images. A place where a tear is purchased with a tear and each sorrow with a sorrow. The work of recent years has come close to this. To start with I will share my own story. Not to heal my pain, but rather to understand "painting as a mechanism” that allows me to hover over the ruins of my life. »

Arnaldo Roche-Rabell

The process of creation understood as an experience that purifies the spirit, a transcendental act that, just as the lung is a fundamental organ of the body, allows us to carry on living through the vital act of breathing; and a work of art, understood as the final outcome of a liberation of the senses, of excessive giving, of the desire to give expression, of the need to communicate, is made clear in OBRAS RECIENTES [recent works] of Arnaldo Roche.

A collection of exquisite flexibility and hugely significant expression where the artist is hero, narrator, and witness to his own history. A selection with such capacity to communicate that we have no difficulty understanding messages – both implicit and explicit – conveyed in each of the works; the fruits of the pain generated by his personal drama and life's collective tragedy. The madness, death or desolation created by the most recent Tsunami are some of the themes explored by without pessimism and with great clarity as the human condition and what affects mankind make up the common theme that runs through the whole exhibition.

Exhibiting these works in the Dominican Republic is a very significant event. We want to express our thanks to Mr. Armando del Valle for taking up our cause and, together with other sponsors, assuming the financial burden of putting on an exhibition of this nature; thanks also to Mrs. Raquel Espinosa, for providing the point of contact with the artist; to Mr. Walter Otero and other private collectors who generously agreed to loan the works of art; to Mrs. Marianne de Tolentino, who as Guest Curator, together with Amable López Meléndez, the Curator of the MAM, took on responsibility for the administration and setting up of the exhibition. Without the joint efforts and contributions of all those involved, we would not have been able to experience this wonderful event.

All of this effort on our part, and the artist's creative processes make sense and his views come together with the many interpretations that you and I both bring to Arnaldo's emotive suggestions; as he shares his vision of the cosmos with us, he is drawing us into his experience of the world, and offering to share with us the possibility of "salvation." And as a result we are all – whether consciously or not – survivors in a world which, whether as participants or observers, and for always, in the artist's words we will have art as a means of hovering over the wreckage of our own lives.

Once again, from the perspective of the viewer and admirer, thanks for allowing us to hover.

María Elena Ditrén

Director of the MAM