The exhibition Decameron / Divine comedy, José Manuel Ballester’s (Madrid, 1960) second solo show at Galería Rafael Ortiz in Seville, is composed of two distinct parts, both conceptually and spatially. Both are part of the artist’s ongoing series Hidden spaces, a long-term project reflecting on visual memory and iconographic tradition from a contemporary perspective.

Decameron

The first part of the exhibition features a selection of 30 x 40 cm images created by the artist in 2024, based on historical illustrations of The Decameron by 15th-century historian Jean Mansel. In these pieces, Ballester digitally removes the human figures originally depicted, thus highlighting the architecture, landscapes, or settings they once occupied. The resulting narrative emphasizes what is unsaid, implied, or invisible, prompting the viewer to reconstruct the image from memory and personal interpretation.

Ballester explains that this type of intervention seeks to reconcile contemporary perspectives with the classics. The disappearance of figures is an invitation to reinterpret: “Each person projects their memories to reconstruct the image,” the artist says. This operation creates narrative ambiguity, where the setting becomes both protagonist and generator of meaning.

The proposal engages directly with European pictorial tradition and is grounded in an understanding of photography as an expanded space for pictorial reinterpretation. Ballester himself has emphasized the influence of digital design and tools like Photoshop as part of a “neo-pictorialist” heritage, creating conceptual and technical links with the great painting treatises.

Divine comedy

The second part of the exhibition presents a series of Italian miniatures from the Trecento and Quattrocento periods, reinterpreted using the same method: the removal of figures to give value to the scenography. These works are based on Giovanni Paolo’s illustrations for Dante Alighieri’s Divine comedy.

Created between 2023 and 2024, these pieces depict various scenes from Paradise. Although they differ in format from the Decameron series (these are approximately 33 x 80 cm), Ballester maintains the same conceptual approach: erasing the figure to create contemplative space focused on architectural backdrops, gardens, or skies once used as mere backgrounds. Here, absence becomes a visual argument, prompting the viewer to rethink the frameworks of representation.