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5/6/2014

Fields of image

MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporanea, Vigo

Curator Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego
Coordinator José Manuel Mouriño

There has always been a connection between art and knowledge, or scientific knowledge. Moreover, in our technical modernity we are led to conclude that many of the results and procedures of scientific knowledge largely depend on their display and construction in images. The physical evidence of these experimental process, their tangible experimental evidence, often results in an image. This exhibition project shows how artists and researchers share the need for graphic and figurative resolution of the events and physical facts of the world.

Ramiro Álvarez Clavero (Remote Sensing Services, CACTI - Scientific and Technological Research Assistance Centre, University of Vigo); Alessandro Benedetti (Department of Applied Physics, CACTI, UVigo); Loreto Blanco Salgueiro (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Fernando Casás (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); María Castellanos Vicente (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); John Coplans; Román Corbato (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Santiago Fraga (Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Oceanographic Centre of Vigo); Silvia García (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Christian García Bello (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Fernando García Correa; Fran Herbello and Manuel Sendón (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Yolanda Herranz Pascual (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Anne Heyvaert (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Juan Fernando de Laiglesia (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Elena Lapeña (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Juan Loeck (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Lola Marazuela and Paco Mesa; Juan Carlos Meana (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Gonzalo Méndez Martínez and Aida Ovejero (Department of Marine Sciences and O. T., UVigo); Beatriz Mouriño and Denise McGillicuddy (Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, UVigo / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA); Arturo Moya; Mónica Ortuzar (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Juan J. Pasantes, Concepción Pérez-García and Paloma Morán (Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology, UVigo); Perejaume; Ignacio Pérez-Jofre (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Rubén Ramos Balsa; Francisco de Sales Covelo; Carmen Serra Rodríguez (Nanotechnology and Surface Analysis Service, CACTI, UVigo); Ana Soler (Faculty of Fine Arts, UVigo); Jesús S. Troncoso (Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, UVigo); Grupo de Ecología Pesquera (Fishing Ecology Group, Institute of Marine Research, IIM-CSIC); XM1 Research Group (Irene Alejo, Susana Costas, Guillermo Francés, Rita González-Villanueva, Miguel A. Nombela, Marta Pérez-Arlucea, Corinne Pérez-Estévez - Department of Marine Sciences, UVigo); Multimedia Technologies Group (AtlanTIC Technology Centre, UVigo)

SUMMARY OF THE EXHIBITION PROJECT

The exhibition ‘FIELDS OF IMAGE. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF FACTS AND THOUGHT’ is the result of a collaboration between MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo, and the University of Vigo. The BALIZA project, carried out at the Pontevedra Faculty of Fine Arts and implemented at the Campus do Mar - Knowledge in Depth, forms part of the actions funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture under the Sub-programme for Strengthening the Campus of International Excellence. This programme aims to increase internationalisation and the creation of stable structures capable of bringing together academia with regional elements, public administration, civil society and the business world. In this context, the Ministry of Education, together with the Department for Universities, promoted the publication ‘Art as a criterion of excellence’, a document designed specifically to introduce artistic initiatives within the Campus of International Excellence projects. In this context, the BALIZA project aims to design a medium-term action plan for research in the field of Fine Arts: a number of actions have been carried out since 2012, including seminars, workshops, discussion forums and the development of resource and specific tools, and this exhibition project signifies a crucial step forward in the exploration and visibility of the art-science duality.

Demonstrating that art and science are not as different as we might think is one of the objectives of ‘FIELDS OF IMAGE. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF FACTS AND THOUGHT’, curated by Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego. The history of Western culture is full of examples that show the links between a system of perception and technical measurement, and the visual image. There are specific research processes in both science and the arts that must be expressed in the form of an image. Based on this idea, this group exhibition includes works developed by the University’s scientific research groups, artists from the School of Fine Arts, and a number of guest artists. Their research processes around the image are all equally presented in an exhibition defined by its versatility.

The title of the exhibition [Fields of Image’, ‘Eidos da imaxe’ in Galician language,] is particularly meaningful if we look at the literal meaning of the term. On the one hand ‘Fields of Image’ refers to the idea of fields and territories —even directions— of work and exploration. On the other hand, it also refers to a philosophical and scientific concept with an extensive tradition in the history of human knowledge: the Greek word εἶδος / Eidos (aspect of reality condensed in a form or concept), used by Plato, Aristotle and Husserl —the father of phenomenology— in the twentieth century.

The project was designed around seven approaches which correspond to the installation of the exhibition at the MARCO: morphography, geography, chronography, anatomography, micrography, macrography and spectrography.

Morphograpy brings together works related to the analysis and creation of forms. These are dynamic configurations of the creative act in both nature and art. Geography encompasses works that deal with measurements and changes of scale, with the study of the coast, reliefs and volumes, with geographical expeditions, with perspective. The Chronography section relates to measurements and registrations of or in time, just as Anatomography refers to measurements and registrations of the body. Micrography —the process of capturing images of objects invisible to optical or electronic instruments like magnifying glasses and microscopes— and Macrography —capturing larger images or graphic records in relation to the selected object— are the focus in two other sections. Finally, Spectrography includes images obtained through the process of analysing the spectrum of frequencies characteristic of wave motion (sound, light or electromagnetic). The spectral decomposition of frequencies can be applied to any concept associated with frequency or wave motions such as colours, musical notes, electromagnetic radio or television waves and even the regular rotation of the earth.

Historical materials and documents, which serve as models and principles of use of the image/sign, have been included in each of the sections along with the works of artists and researchers and examples of contemporary experimental processes.

TEXT BY THE CURATOR

There has always been a connection between art and knowledge, or scientific knowledge. If we think about the Renaissance, a crucial moment in the history of Western Art, we cannot forget the important role perspective played in the Quattrocento, for example, as a tool for implementing the concept of three-dimensional space. On the other hand, many artists would not refuse being considered creators in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, in as much as being someone who investigates the secrets of nature and records their dynamics. Similar connections between a system of perspective and technical measurement and the sculptural image are found in other moments in cultural history, such as in the birth of photography, in the later development of the possibilities of the image in movement or in the collaborations between a painter like Fuseli, for example, with Lavater, illustrating his Essays on Physiognomy, or the magnificent illustrations —perhaps by Tiziano— of Vesalius’s anatomical studies. Something similar could be said about the tentative sculptures of scientific researchers like Goethe himself, Dahl, a botanical illustrator like Linnaeus or, within the scope of our cultural context, figures such as Simon Peter Pallas or Ramón y Cajal.

Moreover, in our technical modernity we are led to conclude that many of the results and procedures of scientific knowledge largely depend on their display and construction in images. The physical evidence of these experimental processes, their tangible experimental evidence, often results in the image. The examples are endless and we cite just a few: the drawings of microparticles studied and developed by Robert Hooke, experiments by Muybridge and Marey on how the body moves, the very invention of the cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, Snowdon’s crystallography, Edison’s proof of the relationship between sound and image, Röntgen's pioneer work with X-rays of his wife’s hand, the Rorschach test and, finally, the images taken by Franklin and Gosling of the crystal diffraction DNA fibres, which unquestionably helped to establish the structure of the genetic code and the double helix model.

We start with the idea that not only scientific knowledge but all knowledge reflects our desire to measure everything. The most abstract theme that can be found in the scientific system is measurement, comparatio, and its formation as a symbol. The observation of a phenomenon and its transmission. In this sense, there is a theme that encompasses our reflection on the connections between art and experimental knowledge: measurements and graphic symbols. Graphic and figurative resolutions of the events and physical facts of the world. We propose, therefore, a cataloguing of possible measurements and systems (graphics, graphic symbols) to anchor these symbols made physical processes. It is in the metonymic-metamorphic — even metaphoric (that is, transferring conditions between systems of symbols)— where they come into play, along with the systems of experimental observation, the artists.

We have proposed seven approaches for the exhibition project, underpinned by the different figures and positions that we can contemplate in relation to the observation and recording of physical phenomenon. Historical materials that function as regulatory models and principals of use of the image/sign have been incorporated into each of these sections. We also invite guest artists to the University of Vigo to participate in their development, while including specific experimental and contemporary processes that fall under each of these fields.

Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego
[Curator of the exhibition]

INFORMACIÓN GENERAL

SOBRE EL COMISARIO
Tenured professor of Art Aesthetics and Theory at the University of Vigo, Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego is Doctor in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Coordinator of the University of Vigo’s Master of Contemporary Arts: Research and Creation, Ruiz de Samaniego was the director of the Luis Seoane Foundation of A Coruña (2008-2011). He received the Espais Award for art criticism as a cultural critic and curator and was curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Art Biennale. He has published numerous books, including: Maurice Blanchot: una estética de lo neutro (1999), Semillas del tiempo (1999), La inflexión posmoderna: los márgenes de la modernidad (2004), James Casebere (2005), Belleza de otro mundo. Apuntes sobre algunas poéticas del inmovilismo (2005), Paisaje fotográfico. Entre Dios y la fotografía (2007), and Ser y no ser. Figuras en el dominio de lo espectral (2013). He has curated exhibitions by artists Antón Lamazares, Luis Seoane, Xesús Vázquez, Chema de Luelmo and Manuel Vilariño as well as a range of contemporary art group exhibitions (La Isla Futura: arte joven cubano; Arte y nihilismo; 5000 años de arte moderno; Arte y enfermedad) and exhibitions Georges Perec: Tentativa de inventario; Atlantikwall. Arquitecturas bélicas en las playas del oeste; Andrei Tarkovski: fidelidad a una obsesión; La escultura en Fritz Lang; Unterwegs: al paso de Walter Benjamin; and Cabañas para pensar.

INFORMATION AND GUIDED TOURS
The exhibition staff is available for any questions or information regarding the exhibition, as well as regular guided tours:
Daily at 6pm ‘A la carte’ group tours, please call +34 986 113900/11 to book

Image: Mónica Ortuzar. Miembro clan, 1999

For more information please contact:
MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo
Communications & Press Department (Marta Viana o Pilar Souto)
Tel. +34 986 11 39 08 /11 39 03 / 11 39 00 Fax.+34 986 11 39 01 Email: marta.viana@marcovigo.com - pilar.souto@marcovigo.com

MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art
Príncipe 54. 36202 Vigo, Pontevedra
Opening times:
Tuesdays to Saturdays (including bank holidays) from 11am to 2:30pm and from 5pm to 9pm
Sundays, from 11am to 2:30pm
Closed on Mondays

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