A spear, a spike, a point, a nail, a drip, a drop, the end of the tale

Laura Belém, Débora Bolsoni, Cristiano Lenhardt, Sara Ramo and Matheus Rocha Pitta

Ellen de Brujine Projects (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

As soon as one tries to present or represent singularity - that is, articulate the universal as the particular or the particular as the universal - the community of ´we´ is returned to the fiction of a substantial community. The singularities of this community become what this community must exclude to live the fiction that it represents in law its members, this fiction being that all the singularities which make it up are nothing but particular examples of its universal law.

Giorgio Agamben

A first-person narrator finds the Aleph, “one of the points in space that contains all points”1, in the corner of a basement on Garay Street and gets to see all the places in the world at the same time. This tale, The Aleph, by Borges, shows how the universal transcends as an abstraction in the concreteness of the particular. The relation between universal and particular is to be found in forms of practical knowledge such as literary interpretation. It involves a situated kind of knowledge in which universal and particular inform one another.

“To understand a text always means to apply it to ourselves and to know that, even if it must always be understood in different ways, it is still the same text presenting itself to us in these different ways”2. The weight of the Portuguese adjective concreta, of the surreal piece Avalanche Concreta, by Sara Ramo, falls on the fact that the rhetorical figure is specific, concrete, and at the same time refers to the Concret Art Movement and the Neo-Concrete Movement; it also means real, tangible, lending the work yet another meaning. This territory invasion perpetrated by this work accentuates the fragility, the feebleness of a structure of believe, a disturbance in the order of the social space.

The social space is as an active extent in perpetual transformation, where there is a cultural tension between the singular and the universal. This space can be seen as a socially generated result of the gestures of the body. In the beginning of Sophocles’ third Theban play, Antigone is asked by her sister to surrender to the government of Creon, arguing that “when you are powerless, wild gestures and heroic refusals are reserved for madmen!” 3 . The gesture, according to Agamben, is “the name of this intersection between life and art, act and power, general and particular, text and execution”4. A group of people raising their hands in response of brutality and impotence, a boy developing an arc with his body when throwing something into a war destroyed city, a beardy monk showing to an occult viewer a stone; gestures of protest against a universal order. Through newspaper images on concrete slabs, Matheus Rocha Pitta shows us these moments when people are pure praxis. Like Antigone who acted against a specific rule appealing to a universal morality: is the duty of the living to bury the dead. The tragic conflict between particular and universal as noted is at the same time because both Antigone and Creon believe they are acting on the basis of higher universal laws.

Kafka explores the concept that the particular can be collected under the aegis of the universal in the parable The Top, in which a philosopher assumes that he can grip the universal by holding the particular. For that he tries to grab a child's top as it spins, hoping that it wouldn’t stop. The idea of grasping is seen as well through the nostalgic sculpture by Débora Bolsoni, where we notice on the surface of a sandcastle tower the silhouette of a wave bringing up one of the tale morals: to grip something is, at the same time, to lose it, like a child building a sandcastle by the sea.

However, there is one mechanism in language that escaped from this philosopher mind, which is the ‘example’. It belongs to both the universal and the particular and sets a model for conceiving a distinct parallel between them. The singularity seen here is at once a member of, and excluded from, the set of things it exemplifies. Individual and collective aren’t dissociative things, they are the same. One example is the word ‘carnival’, that comes from carne, which means ‘flesh’, and levare defined as ‘to take away’. It could be understood as ‘the taking away of flesh’ and was a kind of last spree. Nevertheless, the carnival became much more then a moment of indulgence. To Bakhtin, carnival turned the world upside down by authorizing everyone to arrange him or herself as wished. During its development, in the Renaissance, this event came to be a truly universal festival and generated many particular variations, another example of how the particular accesses the universal. The Carnival, according to Bakhtin “is not an individual reaction to some isolated ‘comic’ event, it is the laughter of all the people…it is universal in scope”5. The mornings are the moment when the party finishes, residues and traces are the only things seen with the morning lights. As well put by Clarice Lispector: “But I don’t know why this one transported me back to my childhood and those Ash Wednesdays on the dead streets where the remains of streamers and confetti fluttered. The occasional devout woman with a veil covering her head would be heading to church, crossing the street left so incredibly empty after Carnival. Until the next year.”6

When the narrator is in the core of his story and is about to explain the limitless Aleph, he feels obligated to denounce the limitation of language. Language, even if meant to be universal and set to be understood by everyone, can’t embrace all our being. Like Cristiano Lenhardt’s Pequeno Grande Miúdo, each word deactivates the normal usage of language opening up the possibility of another use of this set of symbols. How can we translate something immense, such as nature, into something particular and unique that could be our language? “Does this Aleph exist in the heart of a rock?”7 asks the Borgean narrator at the end of the tale.

Tiago de Abreu Pinto

1 Borges, El Aleph, 1945. Translation by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni in collaboration with the author.

2 Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, translation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (Continuum, 2006), p.399

3 Sophocles, Antigone ,ed. by Angie Varakis, trans. by Don Taylor (London: Methuen,2010), p. 7. (emphasis added).

4 Giorgio Agamben, Marginal Notes on Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle, trans. V. Binetti and C. Casarino (Minneapolis, MN and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p. 80

5 Chris Jenks, Transgression, (Psychology Press, 2003), p. 7

6 Clarice Lispector, The Complete Stories, ed. by Benjamin Moser, trans. by Katrina Dodson (New Directions; Reprint edition, 2015)

7 Borges, El Aleph, 1945. Translation by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni in collaboration with the author

Raw Approach

Maillo

Alcobendas Art Centre (Alcobendas, Spain)

‘We are building something here…

and all the pieces matter’

Lester Freamon

‘Nobody has yet determined the limitsof the body’s capabilities’

Spinoza

The exhibition Raw Approach, by spanish artist Maíllo (Madrid 1985), curated by Tiago de Abreu Pinto, is composed around an installation as a kind of evidence board (formed by paintings, drawings, schemes, colour tests, memos, canvases, notes among others), that explores the many possibilities of conceiving ontologic and existential investigations relative to the body and its mental processes.

The investigation, that branches out in an anatomy composed of diverse noises, is an essential aspect in Maíllo’s poetics. The images inside his paintings work as thoughts that articulate in relation to the world that surrounds us, what Germans name Umwelt, with the purpose of tracing his ‘hodologic’ map – constituted of movements of psychologically managed paths, the relationship dynamics and the personal behavior when facing environmental barriers -. The artist, through painting, reflects about both himself and the world making evident invisible forces. He understands painting as an engine of tought. Thoughts, shaped as paintings, that turn into diagrams and conceptual maps about political, social and cultural matters.

The title of the exhibition refers to the multiplicity of meanings that reside in the word raw – unprocessed, exposed, brutish, frank – and its various interpretations when associating it to the stance that the artist presents when facing life. In addition, its sonority, as the other titles used by the artist in past exhibits and works, approaches the field of music, like Jazz and Hip-Hop. Its title is as well one of the keys to understand the main piece of the exhibit. A close analysis could make apparent in the body-biological, in the body-thing, of the conceptual map Evidence Board (2015) a rhizomatic structure full of partially fickle territories. This is the area where we listen to the artist. We see gathered the distinct reference points that he uses to expound his works. The diverse imagetic and textual bodies form part of a specific multitude where all elements as a result affect others and are continously affected by themselves in a delirium, a locution wihout answer. Those masses of concepts and ideas are defined by its potential to affect and/or be affected

On the walls that flank the Evidence Board, we can see finalized paintings of small and medium format that present fists – symbolmainly used by activists and groups like feminist movements, the Black Panthers party, Occupy Wall Street, the Northern Soul movement, among many others – which refer to unity, power and resistance. Fists form part of a series of anatomic drawings that Maíllo creates without having a visual reference. Its development occurs when the artist through the closing of his hand focuses in the sensation of this stimulus. That’s why overflows in all parts of the exhibit an emotional load translated by the pression of his hand flesh, the swinging of his breathing rhythm, the increase of his muscular tone, his blood circulation and arterial rhythm, his energy emanated when making this mechanical and long-lasting movement and the increment of the biochemical exchanges mixed with a multitude of psychic events. These works are reflections ofthe conceptual schemes – like the one captured on the Evidence Board - and work as well like sketches of sensations and emotions – that pass from an emotional or physical pain to a passive sadness or an active fear. These pains and emotions come back every instant to the emotional object and feed of him in an eternal synthesis. However Maíllo’s works break this union leaving excited subject and object in an open state to the spectator. Together, these paintings form the artist’s complex and cacophonic psychogeographic tissue in his tireless quest of charting the subject who gets lost and transfigures between the urban friction ofthe day-to-day.

Tiago de Abreu Pinto

“Aquí estamos construyendo algo …

y todas las piezas tienen importancia”

Lester Freamon

“Nadie hasta ahora ha determinado lo que puede un cuerpo”

Spinoza

La exposición Raw Approach del artista español Maíllo (Madrid 1985), comisariada por Tiago de Abreu Pinto, está articulada alrededor de una instalación a modo de Evidence Board (formado por pinturas, dibujos, esquemas, pruebas de color, notas, lienzos, apuntes, entre otros) que explora las diversas posibilidades de engendrar investigaciones ontológicas y existenciales en relación al cuerpo y a sus procesos mentales.

La investigación, que se ramifica en una anatomía de ruidos diversos, es un aspecto esencial en la poética de Maíllo. Las imágenes en sus pinturas funcionan como pensamientos que se articulan en relación al mundo que nos rodea, lo que los alemanes llaman Umwelt, con el fin de trazar su mapa ‘hodológico’ –constituido de movimientos de vías dirigidas psicológicamente, las dinámicas de las relaciones y el comportamiento personal ante las barreras del entorno–. El artista, a través de la pintura, reflexiona sobre sí mismo y sobre el mundo haciendo patentes fuerzas invisibles. Él entiende la pintura como motor de pensamiento. Pensamientos, en forma de pinturas, que se convierten en diagramas y mapas conceptuales sobre cuestiones políticas, sociales y culturales.

El título de la exposición, traducido como acercamiento en crudo, hace referencia a la multiplicidad de significados que reside en la palabra raw –crudo, en carne viva, bruto, puro, franco– y sus distintas interpretaciones al asociarla a la postura que tiene el artista al enfrentarse a la vida. Además, su sonoridad, como los demás títulos utilizados por el artista en pasadas exposiciones y obras, se acerca al ámbito de la música, como el jazz y el hip-hop. Su título es también una de las claves para entender la pieza central de la exposición. Un análisis cercano podría poner en evidencia en el cuerpo-biológico, en el cuerpo-cosa, del mapa conceptual Evidence Board (2015) una estructura rizomática llena de territorios parcialmente volubles. Este es el espacio donde escuchamos al artista. Vemos agrupados los distintos puntos de referencia que él utiliza para desarrollar sus obras. Los distintos cuerpos imagéticos y textuales forman parte de una multitud concreta donde todos los elementos afectan por consiguiente a los otros y continuamente son afectados por ellos mismos en un delirio, una locución sin respuesta. Esas masas de conceptos e ideas se definen por su potencia de afectar y/o ser afectados.

En las paredes que flanquean al Evidence Board, podemos ver pinturas finalizadas de pequeño y medio formato que presentan puños –símbolo principalmente utilizado por activistas y grupos como los movimientos feministas, el Partido Pantera Negra, Occupy Wall Street, el movimiento Northern Soul, entre muchos otros– que hacen referencia a la unidad, a la fuerza y a la resistencia. Los puños forman parte de una serie de dibujos anatómicos que Maíllo realiza sin disponer de una referencia visual. Su desarrollo ocurre cuando el artista a través del aprieto de su mano se centra en la sensación de este estímulo. Por eso se le rebasa por todas las partes de la obra una carga emotiva traducida por el apretón de la carne de su mano, el balanceo de su ritmo respiratorio, el aumento de su tono muscular, su tensión y ritmo arterial, su energía despendida al realizar este movimiento mecánico duradero y el incremento de los intercambios bioquímicos mezclados con una multitud de acontecimientos psíquicos. Estas obras son trasunto de los esquemas conceptuales –como el plasmado en el Evidence board– y funcionan también como bosquejos de sensaciones y emociones que van desde un dolor emocional o físico hasta una tristeza pasiva o un miedo activo. Estos dolores y emociones vuelven a cada instante al objeto emocionante y se alimentan de él en una síntesis eterna. No obstante las obras de Maíllo rompen esta unión poniendo sujeto emocionado y objeto en un estado abierto al espectador. Juntas, estas pinturas forman el complejo y cacofónico tejido psicogeográfico del artista en su búsqueda incansable de cartografiar al sujeto que se pierde y transfigura entre las fricciones urbanas del día a día.

Tiago de Abreu Pinto

centrodeartealcobendas.org

mailloart.com

lavanguardia.com

exit-express.com

Meditaremos em silêncio a diferença entre nós

Andrea Büttner, Elín Hansdóttir, Francesco Arena, Giorgio Griffa, Ignacio Uriarte, Jirí Kovanda, John Cage, Perejaume, Wilfredo Prieto

NoguerasBlanchard (Madrid, Spain)

That all of us are different is an axiom of our true nature*. We only look like each other from a distance – to the extent, therefore, that we are not ourselves. That’s why life is for the indefinite; the only people who get along well are those who never define themselves, those who are equally nobody.

Fernando Pessoa

If we were all suddenly somebody else.

James Joyce

The exhibition addresses the concept of alterity associated with The Book of Disquiet (1) that describes, in a diary format, the reflections of Bernardo Soares, one of Fernando Pessoa’s heteronyms, on subjects such as the search of his own personality, his interaction with his surroundings and the inconclusive phenomenon that is produced in this encounter.

The phenomenological-existential theories about “otherness” in vogue whilst The Book was written, between 1913 and 1935, placed the other’s subjectivity as essential to the Self. The subject of the other ego is capital for Husserl’s Phenomenology as well as the constitution of the being of the Heideggerian Dasein (2). Likewise, quoting Husserl, “the “Other”, according to his own constituted sense, points to me myself; the other is a “mirroring” of my own self and yet not a proper mirroring, an analogue of my own self and yet again not an analogue in the usual sense.” (3)

This “mirroring” becomes evident when one is alone, states of isolation and solitude reveal our evidence to ourselves (a person understood as consciousness and the world understood as an object constructed by that consciousness) and the connection that we have with the entities that surround us. “The man in the corner of the dance-hall dances with all the dancers. He sees everything, and because he sees everything, he lives everything.” (4) We exist for one another, we are against one another, we can do without one another, we walk past one another, we do not matter to one another. These relations in the exhibition occur between the individual and his internal self (Pessoa and his heteronyms, Griffa and the lines he draws on the paper or the spectator who sees his reflection in the work of Perejaume); between two individuals (the two fictional characters in Kovanda’s work and amidst Hansdöttir’s play of lights and shadows); between individual and collective (John Cage-Erik Satie-Merce Cunningham).

These two last examples are summarized in the story of a curious shadow in the life of John Cage: the French composer and pianist Erik Satie. Cheap Imitation was a convenient solution to an annoying problem. Merce Cunningham, Cage’s life partner, had the desire to use the first part of Satie’s symphonic drama Socrate for a dance. Cage went on to complete his transcription, extending his work to the other two movements of the drama, and encouraged Cunningham to do the same. However, without the permission of Satie’s publisher, Cage and Cunningham were faced with the problem of a scheduled dance premiere with no music that could be legally performed. Cage’s inventive solution was to create a solo piano piece using the I Ching and based, rhythmically, on Socrate and Cunningham’s dance. The result is a music that has the rhythms and general contours of Satie’s music, but which is otherwise completely different. The work in this exhibition is a working sheet of the piece transcribed for orchestra in 1972. Cage commented that in making a composition that differed so much from his regular work, his ideas were sinking in a confusion caused by his great love. Cage-Satie-Cunningham didn´t live, paraphrasing Husserl, with each other or simply alongside one another, but in one another: “The other is co-present in me”. (5)

In a different way, Pessoa carried his heteronyms within and it is through them we can know his otherness. In the specific case of Bernardo Soares, his desassossego (a Portuguese word of complex translation due to its multiple meanings, and illustrated in the exhibition by the work of Arena) (6) associated with his monotonous routine (the endless movement of papers that are being accumulated and after have drifted away) (7) draws empathy from us when we recognize ourselves as individuals in constant change in search of something which is beyond what we have in our hands. In this way the opacity that is seen in the unknown individual, which can be confused with the one of an object, falls to the ground and reveals the Other on a level that makes us see our selves in them. According to Scheler, the person can never be thought as an invariable thing, highlighting, like Husserl, the irreducible aspects of the individual. “Being with one another requires a special approach in order to see through them”. (8)

Tiago de Abreu Pinto

Notes:

*Our true nature: ‘our true humanity’/‘our maturity’ (alternate versions). Richard Zenith's note.

(1) Since the 60s occurred several attempts to publish the work but always unsuccessfully because Pessoa had left the papers in complete disarray. It was first published in 1982. In 1991, Teresa Sobral Cunha published an edition where there were two heteronyms (Vicente Guedes and Bernardo Soares) . In 1998, Richard Zenith attributes, as in the first publication, all the work to Bernardo Soares. The important matter is that there are disputes over the authorship until today.

(2) There are different translations of this concept widely used by different philosophers but accentuated by Heidegger in his works. It is transcribed in all languages ​​for its uncertainty. The ‘Da’ is associated with a spatial-relational element indicating ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘yonder’. And ‘Sein’ is ‘to be’. In short, it refers to being through into existence.

(3) Husserl, E. (1982): Cartesian Meditations, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 94

(4) Pessoa, F. (2002): The Book of Disquiet, England: Penguin, [344]

(5) Rodemeyer, L. M. (2006), Intersubjective Temporality, The Netherlands: Springer, p. 165

(6) The Italian words which have its initials in the Portuguese word Desassossego are: Dado (Screw), Euro (Euro coin), Sasso (Stone), Accendino (Lighter), Scatola (Box), Sega (Saw), Ombrello (Umbrella), Spirale (Spiral), Stringa (Shoelace), Elastico (Elastic), Giornale (Newspaper) and Occhiali (Glasses).

(7) It relates to the kind of being of these things at hand that are an essential reference to possible wearers pointed by Heidegger in the § 26 of Being and Time

(8) Heidegger, M. (1996), Being and Time, New York: State University of New York Press, p. 116

photo. Roberto Ruiz

Que somos todos diferentes es un axioma de nuestra humanidad*. Sólo nos parecemos de lejos, en la proporción, por lo tanto, en que no somos nosotros. La vida es, por eso, para los indefinidos; sólo pueden convivir los que nunca se definen, y son, uno y otro, /nadies/.

Fernando Pessoa

Si todos fuéramos repentinamente alguien distinto.

James Joyce

La exposición aborda el concepto de alteridad asociado al Libro del desasosiego (1) que describe, en un formato de diario, las reflexiones de Bernardo Soares, uno de los heterónimos de Fernando Pessoa, acerca de temas como la búsqueda de su personalidad, su interacción con el entorno y el fenómeno siempre inconcluso que se produce en este encuentro.

Las teorías fenomenológico-existenciales acerca de la otredad en boga durante la redacción del Libro, escrito entre 1913 y 1935, ponían a la subjetividad ajena como esencial al Yo. La cuestión del alter ego es capital para la fenomenología de Husserl así como la constitución del ser del Dasein heideggeriano (2). Así mismo, citando a Husserl, ¨el «otro» remite, por su sentido constituido, a mí mismo: el otro es reflejo de mí mismo y, sin embargo, no es propiamente un reflejo; es un análogo de mí mismo y de nuevo no es, sin embargo, un análogo en el sentido habitual.¨ (3)

Este reflejo se vuelve patente cuando uno está solo ya que el aislamiento y la soledad siempre nos ponen en evidencia a nosotros mismos (al sujeto entendido como conciencia y al mundo entendido como objeto construido por esa conciencia) y a la conexión que tenemos con las entidades presentes en el entorno que vivimos. Según Pessoa, ¨quien está en el rincón de la sala baila con todos los bailarines. Lo ve todo y, porque lo ve todo, lo vive todo.¨ (4) Somos uno para otro, estamos uno contra otro, prescindimos los unos de los otros, pasamos unos al lado de los otros, no nos interesamos los unos por los otros. En la exposición, estas relaciones ocurren entre individuo y su mundo interior (Pessoa y sus heterónimos, Griffa y las líneas que traza sobre el papel o el espectador que se ve reflejado en la obra de Perejaume); entre dos individuos (entre los dos personajes ficticios en la obra de Kovanda, entre la luz y la sombra de Hansdöttir); entre el individuo y el colectivo (la triangulación John Cage-Erik Satie-Merce Cunningham).

Estos dos últimos ejemplos se pueden resumir en la historia de una gran sombra presente en la vida de John Cage: la del compositor y pianista francés Erik Satie. Cheap Imitation fue la solución conveniente para un problema molesto. Merce Cunningham, compañero de vida de Cage, tenía el deseo de utilizar la primera parte del drama sinfónico Socrate de Satie para una danza. Cage llegó a completar su transcripción, lo amplió a los otros dos movimientos, y animó a Cunningham que hiciera lo mismo. Sin embargo, sin el permiso del editor de Satie, Cage y Cunningham se enfrentaron con el problema de un estreno ya programado sin una música que se pudiera interpretar. La solución inventiva de Cage fue hacer una pieza para piano con la técnica del I Ching y basada rítmicamente en Socrate y en la coreografía de Cunningham. El resultado es Cheap Imitation (1969): una obra que tiene el ritmo e incluso algunos de los aspectos generales de la música de Satie, pero que por lo demás es completamente diferente, y que en 1972 Cage arregló para orquestra. Cage dijo que al hacer esta obra, tan distinta de su trabajo habitual, sus ideas se hundían en una confusión provocada por el amor. Cage-Satie-Cunningham no vivieron, parafraseando a Husserl, uno junto al Otro o simplemente uno con el Otro, sino que uno en el Otro: “Llevo a los otros en mí”. (5)

De manera distinta, Pessoa llevaba en sí a sus heterónimos, y a través de ellos se puede conocer a la otredad del escritor. En este caso concreto a Bernardo Soares, su desassossego (palabra portuguesa de difícil traducción debido a sus múltiples significados, ilustrado aquí a través de la obra de Francesco Arena) (6) asociado a su monótona rutina (el movimiento sin fin de las hojas que se van acumulando y luego desapareciendo) (7) nos causa empatía al reconocernos también como individuos en constante cambio y en búsqueda de algo más de lo que tenemos. De esta forma la opacidad que vemos en un desconocido, que se puede confundir con la del objeto, se desmorona y nos desvela al Otro a un nivel que nos hace vernos reflejados en él. Como decía Scheler, la persona no debe ser pensada jamás como una cosa invariable, destacando, de la misma manera que Husserl, el carácter irreductible del individuo. En la relación con los Otros siempre estaremos en búsqueda de caminos especiales para acercarnos a fin de conocer las vivencias que tras ellos se ocultan.

Tiago de Abreu Pinto

Notas:

* «naturalidade» (naturalidad). Nota de Ángel Crespo.

(1) Ocurrieron muchos intentos de publicación de la obra desde los 60 pero siempre inconclusas ya que Pessoa la había dejado en completo desorden. Fue publicada por primera vez en 1982. En 1991, Teresa Sobral Cunha publicó una edición donde aparecían dos heterónimos (Vicente Guedes y Bernardo Soares). En 1998, Richard Zenith atribuye, como en la primera publicación, toda la obra a Bernardo Soares. Lo importante es que hasta hoy existen controversias sobre la autoría.

(2) Hay distintas traducciones de este concepto muy usado por distintos filósofos pero más acentuado por Heidegger en sus obras. Se transcribe en todos los idiomas por su difícil traducción. El ´Da´ está asociado a un carácter espacial indicando ´aquí´, ´ahí´, ´allí´. Y el ´Sein´ está asociada al ´ser´. En pocas palabras, alude al hombre como lanzado a la existencia.

(3) Husserl, E. (1985): Meditaciones Cartesianas, Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 154

(4) Pessoa, F. (1984): Libro del desasosiego, Barcelona: Seix Barral, p.279.

(5) Temporalización Intersubjetiva en: La intersubjetividad en Husserl. Bosquejo de una teoría, Julia V. Iribarne, Menno-Arend Herlyn & Rainer Sepp, p. 382.

(6) Las palabras en italiano que tienen sus iniciales en la palabra Desassossego son: Dado (Tuerca), Euro (Moneda de Euro), Sasso (Piedra), Accendino (Mechero), Scatola (Caja), Sega (Sierra), Ombrello (Paraguas), Spirale (Espiral), Stringa (Cordón), Elastico (Elastico), Giornale (Periódico) y Occhiali (Gafas).

(7) Cuestión de la esencial remisión a sus posibles portadores acentuada por Heidegger en el § 26 del Ser y Tiempo.

foto. Roberto Ruiz

noguerasblanchard.com

artviewer.org

lavidautilculturayartes.com

Parallax

Pablo Accinelli, Sofia Borges

The Goma Gallery - within the event Jugada a 3 Bandas (Madrid, Spain)

Parallax. I never exactly understood. There’s a priest. Could ask him. Par it’s Greek: parallel, parallax.

James Joyce

The Goma is pleased to present a project by Pablo Accinelli and Sofia Borges created in an interpretative loop structure, curated by Tiago de Abreu Pinto for Jugada a 3 Bandas event. As a starting point both artists chose a photo by Sofía Borges which Accinelli would then use in subsequent works, which were jointly chosen by the artists. These, in turn, were again translated by Borges into a final image.

The works instigate an apparent delocalisation of the object, owing to a shift in the position of the beholder. The artists semiotically question the object under study and adopt a similar stance that addresses the spectator’s mind as its field of action. A good example is Accinelli’s work What The Sea Throws Up At Vlissingen (2007), a transcription of the poem by Allen Ginsberg listing all the waste returned by the sea which the poet saw washed up on the shore. The idea examines how the reader fashions an image from a poem. The artist’s recent work breaks with the binary quality of his previous practice, and now the analyses and connections are the result of exploring space as if in a tracking shot, underscoring time as experience. Likewise, in Borges’ early works there was an evident fascination with how photography manages to create a new place for things, while now she is working with a dearth of information on the object per se, expanding the sign emitted. Time and photographic reference have always been a key element in her work, grounded in a rethinking of language and the absence of meaning. In Monstruo (2012), she brings to light a strange undecodable element that references the sign “monster".

Although our eyes are distanced one from the other, in parallax they capture different aspects of the same reality which are then fused in our brain to create stereoscopic depth. The way Accinelli’s and Borges’ works are articulated enhances the multiplicity of places of observation and uncovers a new ambiguous territory that, with great pains, is clarified through the fascination of an uncertain disoriented gaze that is waiting for something unknown.

In 2012, Pablo Accinelli ( Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1983) and Sofia Borges ( Ribeirão Preto, Brasil, 1984) met each other at the 30th São Paulo Biennal, where they were invited to participate. For the first time they will make a project together at the Goma gallery.

Paralaje. Nunca lo entendí exactamente. Ahí va un sacerdote. Podría preguntarle. Par es griego: paralelo, paralaje.

James Joyce

La galería The Goma presenta, bajo propuesta de Tiago de Abreu Pinto para Jugada a 3 Bandas, un proyecto realizado por Pablo Accinelli y Sofia Borges, con obras articuladas bajo una estructura circular interpretativa. Como punto de partida ambos artistas seleccionan una fotografía de Sofía Borges que será utilizada por Accinelli en subsiguientes trabajos, a su vez elegidos de manera cohesionada. Estos, a su vez, serán traducidos por Borges a una última imagen.

Estas obras originan una deslocalización aparente del objeto, debido a una alteración en la posición del observador. Existe un cuestionamiento semiótico por parte de los artistas en relación al objeto de estudio y una postura similar que toma como referencia la mente del espectador como campo de actuación. Un ejemplo claro es la obra de Accinelli Lo que la marea devuelve en Vlissingen (2007), transcripción de un poema de Allen Ginsberg a un listado de todos los deshechos vertidos al mar que el poeta contempla desde la orilla. La idea consiste en cómo el lector fragua una imagen a partir de un poema. La obra reciente del artista rompe con el carácter binario que existía en sus trabajos anteriores; ahora los análisis, las conexiones, son fruto del recorrido en el espacio, como si fuera un travelling cinematográfico, subrayándose el tiempo como experiencia. Del mismo modo, en los primeros trabajos de Borges quedaba patente una fascinación por cómo la fotografía conseguía crear un nuevo lugar para las cosas, mientras que actualmente trabaja a través de la falta de información del propio objeto, ampliando el signo emitido. El tiempo y referente fotográfico siempre han tenido una presencia crucial en su obra; han partido de una reflexión sobre el lenguaje y la ausencia de sentido. En Monstruo (2012), pone a la luz un elemento insólito de imposible decodificación que alude al signo “monstruo”.

En paralaje aunque nuestros ojos estén distanciados, captan diferentes aspectos de la misma realidad que son fusionados por el cerebro creando una profundidad estereoscópica. La articulación de las obras de Accinelli y Borges realza la multiplicidad de los lugares de observación desvelando un nuevo territorio ambiguo que se aclara con dificultad a partir de la fascinación de la mirada incierta, sin orientación, que espera no se sabe qué cosa.

Pablo Accinelli (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1983) y Sofia Borges (Ribeirão Preto, Brasil, 1984) se conocieron cuando fueran invitados a participar de la Trigésima Bienal de São Paulo, comisariada por Luis Pérez Oramas. Por primera vez realizan, en la galería The Goma, un proyecto conjunto.

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This dialogue is fine but a decision is always an alone act. Concepts are never perfect, complete or exhausted. I want to make that fleeting moment permanent somehow. “Your errors are your key.” She made me believe in not linear projects, in parallel or secondary structures, in error and failure as a starting point. Sorry I’ve just realized I’m thinking about a different work.

Sean Edwards, Marcellvs L., Guillermo Mora

NoEstudio (Madrid, Spain)

Colours depend on the light you see. Stare the sun for example like the eagle then look at a shoe see a blotch blob yellowish. Wants to stamp his trademark on everything.

James Joyce

This exhibition emerged from long distance dialogues – both oral and written, developed in 2012 – between the artists Sean Edwards and Guillermo Mora, and the curator. Only one of its works, Toga (2011), by Marcellvs L., existed prior to the project, and is the central hub of the exhibition at Noestudio.

Each conversation was recorded to create a digital memory in addition to the natural memory of its participants, because human memories are constantly changing in subtle ways. “Recently neurophysiological studies have shown that every time the brain accesses synapse it is altered, which seems to confirm that there are no permanently fixed traces in the brain.” Memory is subjective and it is not mechanical reproduction as many people believe today. What we see, hear, and feel are inventions of our brains. “Colors don’t exist, they are human inventions.”1

The first point of contact for visitors is the color vibration that each work emits. In the specific case of the video, Toga, there is a tireless movement that generates new colors. The video, with its sculptural physicality, presents (in a decontextualized way) a large fishing net at the port of Reykjavík, being hauled off a boat that was out at sea for months. The works of Edwards and Mora were nourished by the junction between this colorful engine, the dialogues between them, and the characteristics of the exhibition space.

Mora hung Between you and me (2012) on the ceiling. The work consists of a 200m line of entangled canvas stretchers that create an abstract body that scans the unstable space from its upper position. Edwards’ work gives rhythm to the exhibition making each object on the shelf that bisects Noestudio a reference to the oral and written dialogues between the participants. These works deal with gravity and its relation with the ground, destabilizing the notion of balance. The encounter, understood fully, is the raw material of the three artists and the assembled stage for this encounter doesn’t present fixed, immutable or fossilized forms––apart from the work’s physicality.

The artworks, microcosms in themselves, together create a platform that serves as a source of nutrition for the spectator; restless mechanisms that continue seeking; constructing and producing inside of each one of us the uncomfortable sensation which is the impossibility of understanding the reality in its completeness. The future publication and this exhibition aim to bring the viewer, the artists, and their artworks closer together.

Notes

1Conversation with Israel Rosenfield about the artworks of this exhibition and his new studies on the brain and the memory.

Los colores dependen de la luz que uno ve. Mirar al sol por ejemplo como el águila luego miras al zapato y ves un manchón de mancha amarillenta. Quiere estampar su marca en todas las cosas.

James Joyce

La presente exposición ha surgido de diálogos – tanto orales como escritos, desarrollados en 2012 – que fueron construidos a distancia entre los artistas y el comisario. Solamente una de sus obras, Toga (2011) de Marcellvs L., existía previamente al proyecto y consiste en el motor ruidoso de esta exposición en Noestudio.

Cada uno de los diálogos fue grabado para crear una memoria digital además de la memoria natural de sus participantes, porque los recuerdos humanos cambian constantemente de manera sutil. “Recientemente, estudios neurofisiológicos han demostrado que cada vez que el cerebro realiza sinapsis se altera, lo que parece confirmar que no hay trazos permanentemente fijos en el cerebro”. La esencia misma de la memoria es subjetiva y no una simple reproducción mecánica. De hecho, el mundo que vemos, oímos, sentimos, son invenciones de nuestro cerebro. “Colores como tales no existen, sólo son invenciones humanas”1.

El primer punto de contacto entre las obras es la vibración de color que es emitida por ellas. En el caso específico de la obra Toga (2011) existe un movimiento incansable de generación de nuevos colores. El vídeo, lleno de una fisicidad escultórica, presenta de manera descontextualizada, a una red de pesca, en el puerto de Reikiavik (Islandia), siendo recogida de un barco después de meses en el mar. Las obras de Sean Edwards y Guillermo Mora se nutrieron del cruce entre la presencia de este motor preexistente en la exposición, de los diálogos entre ellos y las características del espacio. Guillermo ha colgado en el techo Entre tú y yo (2012). Obra realizada con la ayuda del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte., una larga línea de bastidores enroscados creando un cuerpo abstracto que otea el espacio inestable desde arriba, mientras la obra de Sean da el ritmo a la exposición haciendo que cada uno de los objetos dispuestos sobre el estante, que biseca a Noestudio, haga un guiño a los diálogos orales y escritos mantenidos con los participantes. Las obras juegan con la gravedad y su relación con el suelo desestabilizando la noción de equilibrio de las obras y/o del espectador. El encuentro, entendido en su amplitud, es materia prima de los tres artistas y el escenario armado para este encuentro no ofrece formas fijas, inmutables o fosilizadas. Las obras, microcosmos en si mismas, juntas crean una plataforma que sirve de fuente de nutrición al espectador; mecanismos incansables que continúan buscando; construyendo y produciendo dentro de cada uno de nosotros la sensación incomoda que es la imposibilidad de entender completamente la realidad. La futura publicación y esta exposición tienen el objetivo de acercar el espectador a los artistas y a sus obras.

Notas

1 Conversación con Israel Rosenfield acerca de las obras de la exposición y sus nuevos estudios sobre el cerebro y la memoria.