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ARTE FICCIN
COMISART
NUEVAS MIRADAS SOBRE
LA COLECCIN LA CAIXA
Exposicin Agradecimientos
18 Elena Alonso
Aparato de dos tiempos
Cinta de movimientos bsicos
20 Jorge Barbi
Todo el tiempo del mundo
22 Nicols Combarro
Sin ttulo. De la serie Arquitectura oculta
Sin ttulo. De la serie Arquitectura oculta
26 Aernout Mik
Pulverous
28 Thomas Schtte
For de Birds
30 Andreas Slominski
Sin ttulo
32 Hiroshi Sugimoto
English Channel, Weston Cliff
North Pacific Ocean, Mount Tamalpais
34 Ante Timmermans
19/2010 (disneyfication)
36 Juan Ugalde
Ms bien pajarracos
38 LISTA DE OBRAS
39 CURRCULUMS
40 ENGLISH TEXTS
8
PRESENTACIN
A lo largo de los ltimos aos, la Obra Social la Caixa ha creado una red
internacional de relaciones con museos e instituciones culturales que ha
permitido impulsar proyectos cada vez ms ambiciosos, con una repercu-
sin mayor, y que han sido presentados en varias ciudades europeas. La
idea de red es consustancial a la manera de entender la cultura por parte
de nuestra institucin, y se traslada tambin al trabajo en equipo y a la
colaboracin de profesionales externos que intervienen como asesores
de contenidos, comisarios que trabajan en museografa, en programas
educativos y, en general, en todos aquellos aspectos asociados a las ex-
posiciones y actividades de CaixaForum. El hecho de contar con buenos
profesionales ayuda a tomar el pulso a la cultura, a conocer las investiga-
ciones que se llevan a cabo en la universidad, en el campo de la crtica o
en los departamentos de conservacin de los museos, a incorporarlas en
un formato expositivo y divulgativo, a construir, en definitiva, un puente
entre los laboratorios de creacin e investigacin y las salas de exposicio-
nes, que permita al pblico conocer qu se est haciendo ahora mismo en
diversos mbitos de la cultura.
En esta lnea, la Obra Social la Caixa ha desarrollado un proyecto
innovador, Comisart, que ofrece a los jvenes profesionales la oportuni-
dad de realizar un comisariado a partir de los fondos de la Coleccin de
Arte Contemporneo la Caixa, con la ayuda de nuestros equipos y de
un tutor externo. En un momento en que, debido a la crisis, existen pocas
oportunidades para profesionalizarse, Comisart permite a los jvenes ac-
9
Notas
1. David Seed (Ed.), A companion to Science Fiction, Blackwell, Oxford, 2005, pg. 3.
2. Darko Suvin, On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre en College English, vol. 34, nm. 3, 1972,
pgs. 372-382.
3. Fredric Jameson, Arqueologas del futuro. El deseo llamado utopa y otras aproximaciones de ciencia
ficcin, Akal, Madrid, 2009, pg. 9.
4. Michio Kaku, Universos paralelos, Atalanta, Girona, 2008, pg. 199.
5. Hakim Bey, Zona Temporalmente Autnoma, Talasa Ediciones, Madrid, 1996, pgs. 131-188.
18
Elena Alonso
Aparato de dos tiempos, 2011
Cinta de movimientos bsicos, 2012
Jorge Barbi
Todo el tiempo del mundo, 1991
Nicols Combarro
Sin ttulo, 2012.
Sin ttulo, 2012.
De la serie Arquitectura oculta
Cataclismo | virus
Paradoja | distopa
Aernout Mik
Pulverous (Polvoriento), 2003
Thomas Schtte
For de Birds (Para los pjaros), 1997
Gnesis | distopa
Andreas Slominski
Sin ttulo, 1994
Cataclismo | distopa
Sumergida entre bolsas y objetos recuperados de alguna urbe del siglo xx, se intu-
ye la forma de una bicicleta. El vehculo parece haber sido reconvertido en un tipo
de espacio vital, como si su propietario se hubiese visto obligado a recoger todo
lo que encontraba a su paso hasta tal punto que su obsesin recolectora hubiese
acabado por chocar con su naturaleza nmada, estableciendo con ello su parti-
cular forma de vida. Una existencia regida por la necesidad de construir a partir
de los restos de lo anterior o quiz por el simple impulso de archivar realidades a
travs de sus desechos. Nos encontramos as ante una especie de monumento al
nomadismo y al reciclaje de toda una civilizacin, una imagen postapocalptica
que remite al presente ms inmediato.
Durante la dcada de 1990, Andreas Slominski trabaj especialmente con este
tipo de estructuras, entre la escultura y la instalacin, siempre con una bicicleta
como base. Tom como punto de partida la fotografa de un indigente que utili-
zaba este vehculo para transportar sus pertenencias en bolsas y transfigur esa
imagen a travs de distintas versiones. La que forma parte de esta exposicin,
adems de ser una de las ms voluminosas, cuenta con una interesante peculia-
ridad, un detalle prcticamente imperceptible al observar el conjunto, pero muy
significativo. El objeto que se esconde bajo tanto equipaje es en realidad una bici-
cleta esttica, un aparato incapaz de acarrear toda esa carga acumulada. De esta
forma, ese aspecto nmada que comentbamos contradice radicalmente la na-
turaleza propia del conjunto. Este tipo de incoherencias y discordancias son fun-
damentales en el trabajo de Slominski, funcionan como obstculos al desarrollo
ordinario de actividades cotidianas, estableciendo lgicas diversas que permiten
recapacitar acerca de las propias.
32
Hiroshi Sugimoto
English Channel, Weston Cliff (Canal de la Mancha, Weston Cliff), 1994
North Pacific Ocean, Mount Tamalpais (El Pacfico norte,
monte Tamalpais), 1994
Gnesis | cataclismo
Ante Timmermans
Juan Ugalde
Ms bien pajarracos, 2004
Paradoja | utopa
Juan Ugalde configura con Ms bien pajarracos un cuadro a medio camino entre
el costumbrismo ibrico y la ciencia ficcin. Sobre lo que podra parecer un des-
guace, se eleva un viejo coche sujeto por una estructura metlica y, sobre el coche,
crece un rbol. A travs de la intervencin de una fotografa en blanco y negro, el
artista ha desarrollado un juego de universos superpuestos en los que se mezclan
imaginarios utpicos, coches voladores y futuros postapocalpticos en los que la
naturaleza se ha tomado la revancha sobre los humanos. Todo el conjunto se desa-
rrolla bajo una ptina costumbrista, como suele ser habitual en la obra de Ugalde.
El artista trabaja, desde la dcada de 1990, con fotografas de gran formato
sobre las que pinta y coloca distintos objetos, como azulejos, postales y recortes
de prensa. En Ms bien pajarracos el collage se convierte en el hilo conductor de
la composicin, actuando en dos niveles distintos: en el plano narrativo, con la
superposicin de elementos provenientes de realidades e imaginarios distintos,
y, en el plano formal, con la utilizacin de materiales, todos ellos diferentes, ex-
trados del entorno cotidiano. Un doble juego conceptual que nos transporta de
nuevo a las historias clsicas de ciencia ficcin, con universos paralelos y distintas
realidades entrelazadas.
En muchas de las obras de Ugalde, la parte central de la composicin est
ocupada por la imagen fotogrfica, mientras que la pintura suele servir para en-
cuadrar dicha imagen, al tiempo que borra sus conexiones con el entorno, hacien-
do que lugares y personajes dejen de ser reconocibles. De esta forma, aporta un
sentido menos realista y concreto a la composicin, a la vez que la universaliza al
romper los lazos que la unan con el contexto inmediato.
La obra de Juan Ugalde se ha caracterizado desde sus comienzos, en la d-
cada de 1980, por la utilizacin de distintos imaginarios y registros que giran
alrededor de la cultura popular, el costumbrismo de extrarradio y lo rural, con la
inclusin de personajes de cmic, postales, recortes de prensa, pegatinas, im-
genes de descampados, bloques de edificios, autopistas y desguaces, todo ello
marcado por un particular sentido del humor y de la crtica social.
38
LISTA DE OBRAS
CURRCULUMS
Jaime Gonzlez Cela (Madrid, Espaa, 1984) es licenciado en Historia del Arte por
la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y mster en Arte Contemporneo y Cultu-
ra Visual por el Museo Reina Sofa. En 2008 trabaj en el Festival de Fotografa y
Artes Visuales PHotoEspaa y posteriormente en el BilBOlbul, el Festival Interna-
cional de Cmics de Bolonia. Es miembro del colectivo de comisarios y agitadores
culturales Calipsofacto y ha trabajado en el Museo de la Biblioteca Nacional de
Espaa. En esta misma institucin, ha participado recientemente como asistente
de comisario en la exposicin La Transicin en tinta china. Es educador en el Cen-
tro de Arte 2 de Mayo y comisario independiente.
ENGLISH TEXTS
radically new alternatives.1 It is a genre that turns of a scientific report for the construction of a
outward to speak about all the problems that civilization. Schttes housing modules would
surround us or will end up surrounding us. thus design a very specific set of patterns for
Science fiction traces the main thematic axes living, conditioning all of the communitys day-
of the present exhibition: from the concepts to-day activities in terms of these seemingly
that have been used as variable sections (utopia, innocuous structures. The second of the
dystopia, genesis, virus, cataclysm, paradox) to categories we identify in the exhibition is that
the idea of exploration and discovery, which are of works that offer us representations of these
the keys to entering inside the expository space alternative dimensions, such as the photographs,
proposed by Art Fiction. This space becomes an videos and paintings of Nicols Combarro,
unknown territory, one that raises the possibility Aernout Mik, Juan Ugalde and Hiroshi Sugimoto,
of constructing new relationships between the all of which are produced with traditional artistic
protagonists of the show. The exploration of media and techniques, but with contents that
science fiction prompts us to discover and project are indecipherable using conventional codes.
alternative models, different from the world we The work of Juan Ugalde, for example, presents a
know and, in the case of this exhibition, different dimension in which different imaginaries merge
from the art we know. J. G. Ballard said it was to create an extravagant scene somewhere
inner space and not outer space that we need between the paranormal and the gypsy.
to explore, and this makes for a new reading In the third of our categories are those pieces
capable of encouraging the reappropriation that can be perceived in themselves as objects
of interpretations and the exploration of new from other realities. Jorge Barbi, Rogelio Lpez
directions; a space beyond the border, where Cuenca and Andreas Slominski have produced
there are a few marked routes, alternatives to three-dimensional forms that refer us, by means
those that historically have been proposed, but of paradoxical settings and post-apocalyptic
these are only the beginning, since it is up to the reminiscences, to logical and cognitive structures
viewer to blaze new trails. far removed from our own. In the case of Lpez
This exhibition brings together a selection of Cuenca, the semiotic transfiguration of everyday
works that stand out for their ability to evoke elements transports us to a dimension where
different realities. Aernout Miks hypothetical the systems of communication are so radically
social microconflicts, Elena Alonsos machinery altered that our methods of reading and our
governed by unknown physical laws, or Andreas basic references can no longer function.
Slominskis tribute to a post-apocalyptic Art Fiction sets out from the idea of cognitive
nomadism speak of the world of today by way of estrangement2 to put forward a different
an imaginary conventionally assigned to another approach to the works in the Contemporary
time, a spatio-temporal play as presented in the Art Collection of la Caixa Foundation. This
work by Jorge Barbi, where time is threateningly is a concept born of the theorizing of science
frozen. The encounter between these works fiction that we identify as capable of being
creates a space in which engagement with extrapolated to the realm of contemporary
distinct realities is put forward as a method of visual arts. Darko Suvin used this terminology
interpreting and understanding the present, in in analysing the genre of science fiction as
which the viewer is immersed in an alternative educational literature. Educational not in the
proposal that analyses one of the invisible lines sense of our worlds familiar standardized static
of contemporary art. systems, but from the perspective of curiosity,
Each of the pieces selected for the carrying which is primarily driven by the principle of
out of this analysis has its own particular form estrangement. This dynamic becomes the basis
of engagement with the design of other worlds for dialogue between the viewer and the works
and could be classified in one of three different in the exhibition. Curiosity about the unknown is
categories, depending on the perspective from embraced as the main driving force of perception
which we approach its universes. Some of and learning, which thus assumes a thoroughly
the works, such as those by Thomas Schtte, personal nature. This sense of estrangement
Elena Alonso and Ante Timmermans, provide applies both to the cognitive and the creative
projections of other worlds: models, prototypes abilities, generating reflection in us as receivers
and plans that could plausibly form the basis by means of references to our personal existence,
42
while at the same time inviting us to consider way of keywords related to the creation and
exploring different possibilities, leading to destruction of worlds. In this virtual galaxy
the formulation of mental constructs created composed of interconnected islands one of
specifically to meet the challenge posed by the recurring themes of science fiction the
the strange, the alien and the unknown. Art term virus, for example, links the works by
Fiction focuses on these concepts with a view Aernout Mik and Nicols Combarro. Virus refers
to establishing a space in which to think other to infection, the colonization of bodies and
worlds. Which other worlds? Those of the works spaces, and Combarros constructions present
that make up this show. Thanks to the reflective- non-human morphological structures that
imaginative potential of radical otherness,3 invade spaces and make them their own, while
we posit the pieces on show here as material the symptoms of a massive infection are found in
representatives of other realities. the scenes of Miks Pulverous. The notion of virus
[There] are an innite number of parallel explains how Miks behaviours and Combarros
realities coexisting with us in the same room, forms reproduce and spread in their artistic
although we cannot tune into them [] this worlds. Viruses and epidemics are classic science
means that the waves of each world vibrate fiction devices and, as metaphor, they help us
at different frequencies and cannot interact think about how an artistic idea generates new
anymore.4 The technical problem referred to here realities, infects the viewers mind and stimulates
by the physicist Michio Kaku has a direct bearing it in uncontrollable directions.
on contemporary art as a cosmos of disparate Utopia is another of the concepts proposed
frequencies, which for that very reason suffers for the tracing of itineraries. The idealized vision
from certain limitations of communication. Art of alternative worlds in sharp contrast to our
Fiction conceives the engagement with this own is one of the oldest and most fundamental
alien connection from a zero-point perspective: pillars of science fiction and one that gives the
to unblock our perceptual isolation from the genre its greatest criticality. The new society
frequencies of artistic expression by rebooting outlined by Thomas Schttes sculptural series
the established discourses. might seem utopian, as does the one for which
As a setting for this process Art Fiction posits Elena Alonso projects exercise apparatus oriented
the exhibition space as a kind of Temporary toward unrecognizable goals and desires. That
Autonomous Zone.5 We appropriate this concept there is something disturbing in the very nature
through its inherently abstract and suggestive of utopian optimism can be seen in the way
nature, in line with its authors stance of the exhibition itinerary marked out by the idea
deliberate non-definition. In formulating this of dystopia
coincides in many points with its
mental construction, Hakim Bey drew, first of antonym. The purely recreational character of the
all, on the famous science fiction novel Islands environment constructed by Ante Timmermans
in the Net by Bruce Sterling, using the idea to is disturbed by aggressive references to the
describe spaces that throughout history have capitalist leisure culture, leaving us uncertain as
been governed by a set of rules outside official to whether this is a desirable or an undesirable
dynamics. Thanks to the freedom afforded space. Similarly, it is difficult to categorize as
by their temporary condition, these spaces utopian or dystopian the slowing down of time in
offered alternatives in a world completely the piece by Jorge Barbi.
engulfed by nations and their structures. The This coming together of opposites is also
Temporary Autonomous Zone is a metaphor for seen in the exhibition concepts of genesis and
decentralized experiments and vital insurrection. cataclysm. Hiroshi Sugimotos ambiguous
Embracing these principles, in Art Fiction images take us into an undefined, indefinite
we establish a distributed discursive structure; place, one that might be on the point of re-
instead of configuring a single itinerary and emerging or being consumed, of an occasional
a single perception, the whole montage of new start or the last seconds of a cycle.
this exhibition invites visitors to think from The last of the itineraries (or the first,
different perspectives about the relationships depending on how you move through the
between the works presented. As if they were exhibition space) revolves around the concept
interdimensional routes, a network of lines of paradox paradoxes such as Juan Ugaldes
connects the works arranged in the space by strange flying car, radically alternative to the
43
traditional fantastic imaginary. The affirmation character. They are conceived as a superposing of
of ideas that oppose established opinion is different materials and techniques, as a collage
one of the most widely used strategies for of processes that interact on the same plane to
breaking open closed models of thought. As a configure a joint result. Design and architecture
rhetorical figure, the paradox has a markedly are constants in Alonsos work. Both her
political character: it is an important tool for the drawings and her installations have an aesthetic
imagining of alternatives, a goal shared by many of the project, of the creation of new realities:
works of science fiction and contemporary art. perhaps unrealizable, but thinkable: an exercise,
With this structure and these principles, on the thinking of alternatives, that is valuable in
the basis of the idea of other worlds and of itself as an engine of transformation. In this,
the end of this world as we know it, Art Fiction Elena Alonsos visual production connects with
proposes a journey through different artistic her proposed collective action Eating Land (2009-
universes. This is an exhibition in which each of 2011), aimed at appropriating and reconfiguring
the pieces selected asks to be approached as a the public space.
representative of a world beyond the fringes of The idea of space is fundamental in this
the familiar: a way to exercise our capacities in artists output. From the alien gym constructed
the search for alternative existences. by the drawings of the series The Front to The
Office, presented at Matadero Madrid in 2012,
Notes all of Alonsos spaces are somewhere between
1. David Seed (ed.), A Companion to Science Fiction, the everyday and the paradoxical, transformed
Blackwell, Oxford, 2005.
by means of the very objects that configure
2. Darko Suvin, On the Poetics of the Science Fiction
Genre, in College English, vol. 34, No. 3, 1972. them. Transforming structures, transforming
3. Fredric Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future. The Desire relationships: transforming worlds.
Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions, Verso, London, 2005.
4. Michio Kaku, Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through
Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the
Cosmos, Knopf Doubleday, New York, 2006. Jorge Barbi (A Guarda, Spain, 1950)
5. Hakim Bey, The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological All the Time in the World, 1991
Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, Autonomedia, New York, 1991.
Dystopia | paradox | utopia
For over thirty years now Jorge Barbi has been
developing a personal and original body of work,
Elena Alonso (Madrid, Spain, 1981) an aesthetic exploration practically untouched by
Two-stroke Apparatus, 2011
the vagaries of the market and trends in Spanish
Basic Movements Belt, 2012
art. Since his first solo shows in the 1980s his
Utopia | genesis | paradox work has centred on places, objects and materials
Elena Alonsos drawings configure a catalogue related to the natural environment of his native
of prototypes for machinery governed by laws Galicia. With an approach close to Land art, Barbi
of physics other than those of this planet, takes elements of nature and draws forth all
in a meticulous combination of techniques, of their poetic and material potential, offering
forms and colours that structure mechanisms the viewer a profound reflection on travel, time
far removed from even in opposition and nature. These are the major themes he has
to habitual dynamics, and yet perfectly developed throughout his career, in which he has
classified by way of titles as specific as they worked primarily with sculpture, photography
are incomprehensible from our Earth-bound and site-specific installations. Many of his works
references. These projections break with are made from objects found on walks along the
established logic and propose new structures coast and have been worn smooth by the sea.
and relationships between elements. The Cabacos the local word for pieces of driftwood
viewers imagination thus becomes the washed up on the beach and sea foam are
only engine capable of setting in motion among the main motives of his series.
these strange devices and conceiving the In the 1990s his work evolved further and he
corresponding movements and exercises. began to focus more on the sculptural object. All
The process of making these drawings is the Time in the World is a clear example of this:
painstakingly detailed and strongly traditional in a metal and plastic structure in which he has
44
placed a piece of sandstone. We immediately In an earlier work, The Shadow Line (2007),
recognize this as an hourglass, but then perceive Combarro selected places in which to intervene
something strange as we contemplate the work: with black paint, a colour that helps to explore
time stands still. We see no sand trickling down. the sculptural connotations of the chosen
Time is frozen. Barbi works around the concept constructions and a title with literary
of temporal paradox and the poetic potential of associations relating to exploration and travel. For
the object. As the artist has said, the measure of the artist, this is an exploration through which
time of this hourglass is the time it takes stone he discovers and intervenes in half-built, invisible
to crumble to sand, a passage of time quite places, spaces with an innate social charge.
different from the ones we are used to. Barbi Ten years ago, Nicols Combarro carried out a
speaks to us of a universe in which we have all parallel investigation, Architecture and Resistance,
the time in the world: a utopia, perhaps, in which in which he recorded human constructions that
lack of time is no longer a problem, although stood out for their original, practical character
there is something unsettling about the entire and their independence, in contrast to official
sculpture. The size of the piece, more than two architecture. This methodical autonomous
metres tall, and the dark metal structure give the research is closely connected to his artistic work,
work an unmistakably menacing aspect. in a two-way relationship of mutual feedback
and influence.
on the environment in which they found the people to be seen at life size. Aernout Mik
themselves. This line of work, which includes trained as a sculptor, which explains this spatial
Kommendes Paradise, offers us a wealth of development of his works, in most cases in the
semiotic games that destructure the logic of form of a screen integrated into an architectural
the official order and invite reflection on social structure that rest directly on the ground, giving
conventions and the structures of authority. greater weight and consistency to the piece. In
The political nature of this type of proposal is the artists words, the effect of the installation
also apparent in Rogelio Lpez Cuencas audio- space is reinforced by the absence of sound;
visual production, as it is in his various ongoing given that the videos are as silent as the walls
investigations into history and collective memory and floor, they do not possess the ability to
and identities. In all this activity the everyday separate completely from these elements.
imaginary and the media, as representatives of
the real, are subverted by simple mechanisms that
reveal the fictitious nature of the official forms.
Thomas Schtte (Oldenburg, Germany, 1954)
For the Birds, 1997
Genesis | utopia
Aernout Mik (Groningen, Netherlands, 1962)
The design of architectonic modules is one of
Pulverous, 2003
the earliest and most prolific lines on work in
Cataclysm | dystopia | virus Thomas Schttes artistic career. From 1980 until
In Aernout Miks Pulverous a group of people 2006 he produced an extensive repertoire of
behave abnormally in the storeroom of a models, constructed at different scales from those
supermarket. They compulsively destroy conventionally used in architecture, and presented
everything around them, but they do so in a way on pedestals that give them a sculptural
that we find somehow unfamiliar. Self-absorbed, appearance. Although many of these works allude
the figures in the video empty packages on to specific styles or even to commercial design,
the floor, overturn and smash things and try as with the series Ikea-Variations, the special
to break the walls. While we can associate presentation and the disturbing unreality of
their methodical actions with scenes we have their forms and colours lead us to the conviction
witnessed in the media, they do not flow with that these are architectural projections that will
the naturalness of reality, and watching them, we never be materialized. They seem more like a
as viewers feel insecure. We are not shown the utopian proposal, aimed directly at challenging
outcome of the action or what sparked it off, but the viewers cognitive structures, reflecting on our
we sense that something serious has happened, own society from the standpoint of architecture,
something that is causing this strange one of the most powerful mechanisms for
compulsive behaviour. Some of the subjects organizing a community. The interest in
seem aggressive. Might they be infected? architecture is also evident in some of Schttes
In many of his works, Aernout Mik reproduces prints. This is the case with the series Woodcuts,
social dynamics that seem to precede a moment from 2011: these wood engravings present spaces
of general societal collapse or take place in the and household objects in a zero state, as totally
immediate aftermath of a cataclysm. In this uninhabited living spaces.
case, the action centres on the destruction of This peculiarity also explains the estrangement
retail goods, with which the protagonists exhibit and attraction generated by For the Birds.
an almost fetishistic relationship, one in which Unlike most of Thomas Schttes structures of
touch is of particular importance: the scene an architectural character, this piece does not
prompts us to think about the consumer society refer directly to an established style or period of
and the complex relationships we have with the human history. This is a speculative proposal for
objects around us. habitation modules for an unknown community,
This work derives from an earlier piece, In Two models that seem to be part of an experiment,
Minds, a performance carried out at the Stedelijk the process of constructing a brand new society.
Museum in Amsterdam in 2003. The rear Schtte thus presents us with a fiction that invites
projection is shown on a screen seven metres reflection on various community systems and the
wide and almost two metres high, enabling conditioning of these by nested spatial structures.
46
Andreas Slominski (Meppen, Germany, 1959) photographs of seascapes he has been taking
Untitled, 1994 since the 1980s are one of his most important
lines of work. These views have also been used as
Catastrophe | utopia
part of a sculptural series entitled Five Elements,
Festooned as it is with bags and objects salvaged
in which they are enclosed in glass structures
from some city of the twentieth century,
that reproduce the classic typology of a stupa
we can make out the shape of a bicycle. The
one way of connecting this artists contemporary
vehicle appears to have been converted into
production with his interest in the Buddhist
a kind of vital space, as if its owner had been
tradition.
forced to collect everything he came across, to
All of the images that make up this sequence
the point where his obsessive collecting had
of marine horizons have the same composition,
ended up colliding with his nomadic nature,
with the plays of contrast defining the particular
thereby establishing his particular way of life;
character of each one. All are based on the
an existence governed by the need to build with
almost abstract articulation of two expanses,
the remains of what went before or perhaps by
which conjures dark seas from the gamut of
the simple impulse to archive realities by way of
tones between black and white. Each is from
their residue. We are thus faced with a kind of
a different set of geographic coordinates, with
monument to nomadism and to the recycling
great distances separating one from another,
of a whole civilization, a post-apocalyptic image
yet they all maintain the axis that marks the
that invokes the most immediate present.
visual boundary of the surface of the sea. The
During the 1990s, Andreas Slominski worked
series thus constitutes an extensive catalogue of
above all with this kind of structure, between
seascapes, all similar but different, a catalogue
sculpture and installation, always with a
behind which seems to lie a detailed analysis
bicycle as a base. He It took as his starting
of the world or a constant enquiring into the
point a photograph of a homeless man who
beginnings of life, which the artist understands
used a bicycle to carry his belongings in bags,
as shrouded in myth. So these are particular
and transfigured the image through various
seas, which in turn evoke the seas of other eras,
versions. In addition to being one of the most
other myths, perhaps from a novel by Cormac
voluminous, the version in this exhibition has
McCarthy or a story by Stanis aw Lem. These
an interesting singularity, a detail that is all but
views combine the tragedy of humanity with the
imperceptible when we focus on the whole, but
chance that gave rise to life on Earth, which as
very significant. The object that is hidden under
Sugimoto reminds us, only came about thanks
so much baggage is actually a stationary bicycle,
to the presence of water and air at a suitable
a device intrinsically incapable of transporting
distance from the Sun.
its accumulated load, so the nomadic aspect
we mentioned is radically contradicted by the
very nature of the object. Inconsistencies and
discrepancies of this kind are a fundamental of Ante Timmermans (Ninove, Belgium, 1976)
Slominskis work, functioning as obstacles to 19/2010 (disneyfication), 2010
the normal performance of everyday activities,
Dystopia | genesis | utopia
establishing diverse logics that allow to us take
Ante Timmermans focuses his artistic practice
stock of our own.
on experimenting with drawing and the
possibilities it offers to talk about contemporary
society and show the invisible armatures that
Hiroshi Sugimoto (Tokyo, Japan, 1948) underpin it. Routine and boredom were among
Sea of Japan, 1987 the first ideas he began to develop in his work,
North Pacific Ocean, Mount Tamalpais, 1994 represented by circles and loops. Though these
English Channel, Weston Cliff, 1994 concepts and forms are still very present in his
Lake Michigan, Gills Rock, 1995 work, in recent years he has focused primarily
on the representation of imaginary cities and
Genesis | cataclysm
architectures, and has expanded his modus
Hiroshi Sugimoto meticulously structures his
operandi with the inclusion of installations
work in thematic series. The black-and-white
and projections.
47
19/2010 (disneyfication) is a large drawing, In many of Ugaldes works, the centre of the
a project for a city entirely given over to fun, a composition is occupied by the photographic
metropolis in which it seems we will always be image, with the painting usually serving both to
entertained. The artist thus reveals the routines frame the photograph and sever its connections
that largely determine the rhythm of our with its setting, making places and persons no
lives. In this work everything revolves around longer recognizable. In this way it renders the
the enjoyment associated with capitalism, composition less realistic and concrete while at
with Disneyland and Las Vegas as emblematic the time universalizing it by cutting the ties that
models. The bread and circuses formula has bind it to the immediate context.
lost none of its traction over the years and Juan Ugaldes work has been characterized
Timmermans considers that, while it may be since its inception in the 1980s by the use of
less evident today, it is more relevant than different imaginaries and registers, which revolve
ever. Like Collodi narrating the adventures around popular culture and the costumbrismo
of Pinocchio in the amazing and terrifying of the urban hinterland and rural life, with the
Toyland, Timmermans ironically shows us a city inclusion of comic-strip characters, postcards,
that is not what it seems, a city that seems to newspaper clippings and stickers, images of
be designed for pleasure, but can be converted waste ground, blocks of apartments, expressways
into a prison in next to no time. and scrapyards, all marked by a distinctive sense
of humour and satire.