Gregory de la Haba
Etnia House of Arts presents “Things that Stick” by Gregory de la Haba, an artwork exploring memory, identity and the overlooked archeology of the contemporary city.
Created during his residency at La Misericordia, he transformed a pair of glasses through two materials usually destined to be discarded: chewed gum and stickers collected from the streets of Venice. Removed from their everyday context, these fragments become a wearable archive of the city.
At the heart of “Things that Stick” is a simple idea: both gum and stickers are made to adhere. They remain long after, much like memory itself. Gregory De la Haba invites us to consider what truly stays with us:
“Cities are not remembered solely through monuments, architecture, or official histories, but through the countless insignificant traces left behind by ordinary people. What we casually discard often reveals more about who we are than what we deliberately preserve.By elevating these humble remnants into an object of contemplation, the work blurs the boundary between artifact and refuse, between fashion accessory and sculpture, between personal memory and collective history.”
Created during his residency at La Misericordia, he transformed a pair of glasses through two materials usually destined to be discarded: chewed gum and stickers collected from the streets of Venice. Removed from their everyday context, these fragments become a wearable archive of the city.
At the heart of “Things that Stick” is a simple idea: both gum and stickers are made to adhere. They remain long after, much like memory itself. Gregory De la Haba invites us to consider what truly stays with us:
“Cities are not remembered solely through monuments, architecture, or official histories, but through the countless insignificant traces left behind by ordinary people. What we casually discard often reveals more about who we are than what we deliberately preserve.By elevating these humble remnants into an object of contemplation, the work blurs the boundary between artifact and refuse, between fashion accessory and sculpture, between personal memory and collective history.”