Miquel Barceló met with critical acclaim at an early stage in his career, being awarded Spain’s National Visual Arts Prize when he was just 29 years old. In the 1980s, the artist travelled throughout Europe and the United States, finally arriving to West Africa, and more specifically to Mali, to which he returned on a second trip in the winter of 1991. Once there, he travelled by canoe along the river Niger, from Segu to Gao. In 1996 the Pompidou Centre, in Paris, held an important exhibition of his work, with pieces similar to this one.

Since his personal discovery of Africa, it became a major reference point for Barceló, on a par with his native land. In Mali the artist found both great peace and a stimulus to work, to the point that the country became his second home. As he said, “everything here seems real and paintable.” In Mali he focused more on drawing and ceramics, learning and then using the ceramic techniques of the Dogon people (the local ethnic group) in further demonstration of his deep immersion in the local culture.

The 34 years referenced in the title of this work are inscribed in an elongated shape, most likely the skull of an animal, as if it were a kind of map. It could be a reflection about his life and how it changes with the passing of time; it could also be a kind of premature vanitas.

This is a small yet significant example of the work of one of Spain’s greatest contemporary artists.