Physiology of Marriage

For the exhibition at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Bonillas decided to use the  J.R. Plaza Archive to create a site-specific work. The architecture and the decoration at the Palau de la Virreina (which is still visible in the mouldings on the ceilings, the reliefs in the central courtyard, the forged iron banisters, the Ionic capitals and other ornamental elements) inspired the artist to look among the images in his family’s bequest for one, or several, that could be used to give the palace back a bit of its original look.

In one of the albums he finally found the solution: a sequence of images that showed  J.R. Plaza and his wife, Pilar, in different moments during an idyllic vacation to the port town of Acapulco. Bonillas had always been intrigued by these pictures in which his grandparents seemed to be acting and, in fact, they were: as he later found out, the images were part of a “photographic novel” created by a washing machine company that was giving away a trip to the beach for two people with the purchase of one of their machines.

Taking up the title from an essay by Honoré de Balzac, Physiology of Marriage, in which the French author reflects on the economy and the power relations that are established in a marriage beginning with the honeymoon, Bonillas uses the story — in retrospect, inevitably satirical — that his grandparents took part in to completely cover the walls of the room and convert what had been a publicity hook into a dizzying decorative pattern that repeats endlessly.