Work collected in: Castro Cabero, Marina. Benjamín Menéndez: a vital artist. Avilés: CEAG, 2022

The sculpture we refer to belonged to the temporary exhibition held in 2020 at the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias, Caja de Herramientas. Las Seis Caras del Cubo, being the flagship work of the sample and it is for this reason that in 2021 it would be purchased by the Llanera City Council for the enjoyment of all the citizens of the council and as part of the cultural policy of the consistory to revalue the artists who live in the council, as is the case of Benjamín who currently resides in Ferroñes (Llanera).

The project Caja de Herramientas. Las Seis Caras del Cubo is heir to the speech presented in the exhibition Caja de Herramientas held in 2001 at the Antón Museum: Candás Sculpture Center. In the 2020 exhibition, the artist follows the line of discourse where he tries to generate a debate around industrial heritage and its abandonment by administrations, whose policies and neglect are leaving heritage gaps for future generations, as well as the loss of Asturian pottery identity.

Benjamín Menéndez resumes his work as an "industrial archaeologist" at the San Claudio earthenware factory, touring its facilities over the course of two years of study in which he collects materials and soaks up the environment in which oblivion inhabits, to make a shows that he summarizes in six installations that reflect the six faces of the cube.

In the center of the courtyard of the Velarde palace, the historical headquarters of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, install the piece Las seis caras del cubo, cubo estrella circular. It is the beginning of the story that is told throughout the different rooms. This piece is made of steel, the only one in the exhibition, since ceramic materials are preferred for the rest because it is the material used in the San Claudio factory. It is a large, geometric piece that hung by a few threads, which seemed to wink at the work of Chillida Lugar de encuentros III, located on the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, since both sculptures are two masses of compact and resistant materials that, due to the non-gravity in the way they are arranged by their authors, turn these heavy materials into light and airy ones. In this piece, Benjamín plays with the void generated by the geometry itself inside, "which comes to represent the space of the factory, in full operation, as a place of harmony resulting from the precise gearing of all the resources."

Madreña Roja, Carmen, Caja de herramientas. Las seis caras del cubo, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, Oviedo, 2020.

Castro Cabero, Marina. Benjamín Menéndez: a vital artist. Avilés: CEAG, 2022.