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“Al alcance de su mano” (within fingertip’s reach) is an advertising phrase commonly used to create the illusion in potential consumers that the product could be theirs; that they have the financial power to acquire it. When analyzed literally, the expression suggests a physical image in which the human body is taken as a measurement for objects at a distance within reach.
Distance and touch are two key elements to both this exhibition and the historical moment to which it refers. Between 1960 and 1963, the Deutsches Museum in Munich undertook the reproduction of a section of the ceiling of Altamira -the iconic cave situated in northern Spain- that was exhibited in the Department of Ancient Chemistry until its dismantling in 2022. This was the first life-size reproduction of Paleolithic depictions and, in many ways, it anticipated the future consumption of such sites and experiences.
When the actual cave reached its touristic peak, the basic act of breathing became a threat to its conservation, as an invisible form of contact between visitors and the irreplaceable ceiling. By 1975, the cave received approximately 475 visitors per day, generating high levels of relative humidity, temperature and CO₂; conditions that disrupted the stable environment that had preserved the monument through many thousands of years. In 1977 Altamira was indefinitely closed to the public to prevent further deterioration, followingly replacing the experience with visits to a reproduction.
At a similar point in time, the Spanish cigarette brand Bisonte had transformed one of the famous bison paintings into its logo. This created a close association for those who would recognize the animal in the cave from the image they were carrying in their pockets, consequently reversing the logical order of identification. The cigarettes were advertised with the sentence un placer al alcance de su mano (a pleasure at fingertip’s reach).
The group of works shown in this exhibition place material processes at the center, while analyzing the potential aesthetic interest of the tools and actions that accompany them. The photographs, collected from the Deutsches Museum’s Archive follow the realization of the Altamira ceiling, approached as a practice of object-making. For a short period of time -before mimicking the Paleolithic paintings- the 44-square-meter surface of Solnhofen sand and Portland cement at the Deutsches Museum was simply the reproduction of a limestone ceiling.
A replica itself possesses a form of authenticity of its own, considering the perishable nature of materials and, consequently, of molds. Being forbidden to touch materials that do not appear to be fragile nor valuable may result irritating, much like viewing sculpture from a distance while knowing that touch -let along smell or taste- reveals some of its formal qualities more truthfully.
In this exhibition, soft and careful touch appears in contrast to more destructive and irreversible injections of materials into others. The central piece imitates a rock formation by pulling plaster with a metal stencil, a traditional technique used for stucco profiles. Natural elements, such as foliage or stone have been motifs often employed in decorative techniques and embedded in architecture throughout history. Plaster, as a material, creates a bridge between stucco practices and molding techniques therefore, imbricating reproduction, preservation and ornamentation into one.
Pressing against, resting on, cutting out, pointing at, bearing the weight of; the present pieces echo one another in gesture, process, rhythm, shape or cross reference, in a scale shifting arrangement that is rather felt than seen.
February 2026
Pictures by Alex Jeskulke