Iñaki Rego Rivera

A Good Day to Take a Closer Look

Most people have never really looked at a maize kernel in detail. It is too small, too ordinary, and too easy to pass over. For many of us, its image and meaning have already been fixed in our heads long before we ever truly give it a second look. Yet inside that dry form sits an entire story waiting to unfold when the right lens is applied. This project begins in the gap between recognition and attention, leaving room for what might emerge when something so small and familiar is held still long enough to become strange again.

For me, a good day starts when I actually have the time to stop, breathe, and look around. I feel most at ease when I can follow my curiosity and look at something through a different lens until it shifts and paints a new picture. I think that is why I keep returning to maize. The more attention I give it, the less fixed it becomes. Growing up with Mexico as part of my heritage, I realised I have carried maize with me for many years without ever fully understanding what it held. Through this project, that changed. What once felt familiar now feels full of complexity, curiosity, and a sense of wonder I want to share with others.

Maizes is an installation that follows a single kernel through states of attention, anticipation, and transformation. Through a series of sensory and visual encounters, the work approaches maize not only as a material with surprising properties, but also as a carrier of a living heritage system that often disappears once an ingredient becomes globally standardised. What emerges is an invitation to look again, think more carefully, and realise that even the smallest kernel contains far more than what you originally thought possible.