The sculptural practice of Mario Molins starts from a vital experience. Born and raised in Binéfar (Huesca), in a rural environment, in the bosom of a family dedicated to agriculture and livestock, Mario Molins learned the art of pruning from his grandfather. It is the principles of this practice that he applies in his artistic work.
Molins, when intervening on trees, already dead or lethargic, acts by giving them a voice, exposing the prophetic words of the tree. Words that are transcendental in this era that is already classified as Anthropocene, time of Climate Change, and of helplessness in the face of the disappearance of the jungles under the flames. It is possible that the work of this sculptor would be unnecessary if those words of the trees could be read by others. But it seems that the tree prophecy comes mediated by too many cultural layers. The tool that the sculptor usually uses, the chainsaw, may seem violent, but it is necessary to ally with a certain radicalism to bring the truths to light. The voices of the trees speak today of new losses, of misplaced identities, and of an almost apocalyptic environmental deterioration.
The relationship between root and trunk is important for Mario Molins. The hidden part of things feeds the visible, in the same way that sleep allows wakefulness. By moving the tree-sculptures to the exhibition hall, uprooted, the relationship with the root necessarily becomes metaphorical, which is why Mario Molins' works remind us how we must look inside Nature to be truly alive again.
Molins intervenes trees in situ, it could be said that the tree intervened naked, however, its genuine being as a tree, and moves away from the artifice, therefore, which would be that immediate temptation into which man falls when dealing with wood , material so easily conducive to fictional territories. The resulting forms are not created, but are outlined or released, as if the spirit of the tree were discovered, a procedure that can be read (in ecological terms) as a proposal for a fruitful and "sustainable" coexistence between man and the planet. . The experiment carried out by Mario Molins in similar works is to substitute care for transformation, extending the concept of pruning. In fact, the artist has helped revive the old olive tree. As the artist himself says, the tree "has accepted" his intervention. From its base, several shoots have emerged and it is expected that, after one or two years, they will be able to bear fruit that, when pressed, will give rise to oil. Therefore, we find ourselves before a harvestable sculpture.
