Alejandro Vidal
dal 14/9/2005 al 15/10/2005
Segnalato da
14/9/2005
Alejandro Vidal
Play Gallery (old location), Berlin
A thousand Lonely Suicides. Inquiring about the state of security or the power of fear, the artist's work is concerned with the mise-en-scene of violence and politics. Ski masks, urban tribes, hang-outs, punk music and DJ culture, martial arts manuals, performative rituals such as hara kiri, rave and techno scenes are all elements of his video works and photographs.
A thousand Lonely Suicides
curated by Marco Scotini
Play_gallery for still and motion pictures is proud to present A Thousand Lonely
Suicides, the first Berlin solo exhibition of Alejandro Vidal, an appointment with
an exponent of the last Spanish artistic generation.
Inquiring about the state of security or the power of fear, Vidal’s work is
concerned with the mise-en-scène of violence and politics. Ski masks, urban tribes,
hang-outs, punk music and DJ culture, martial arts manuals, performative rituals
such as hara kiri, rave and techno scenes are all elements of the video works and
photographs of Alejandro Vidal. However, Vidal’s research is not about the
representation of violence, it is rather on its deconstruction: a kind of “anatomyâ€
of its representation. In the works of the Spanish artist the image of violence
takes possession of the codes that can be found in the mass media, advertisement and
films (i.e. icons such as Bruce Lee and
Robert De Niro in “The Deer Hunter†are sometimes present). The image in itself is
not important, the importance lies in the ideological context and its
interpretation.
For this exhibition, curated by Marco Scotini, Alejandro Vidal will transform the
entire space of Play_gallery: he will move an empty rock stage into the gallery
space; a spot-light will be pointing at a trash metal drums, a place where something
has already taken place or is about to happen. In the completely black-painted
space, Vidal’s installation “A Thousand Lonely Suicides†(2005) recovers the
tensions generated by the combination of youth audiences, counter-cultural social
conflicts and suicide as a form of release. “In it, the amassed image of the rock
concert is re-politicised from an anti-nostalgic perspective, by taking
counter-cultural fanaticism towards the sphere of
collective resistance and urban guerrilla “ [J.Barriendos].
Two big video projections, photographs and light boxes will also be on display. The
video, “Conflict, modern pathologies and tactics of disappearanceâ€, will be
presented for the first time on this occasion. If in “You can scratch that way
without the record falling off†(2004) the punches of an old boxer are alternated
with that of a young drummer, in the new video the hand-to-hand combat between two
men alternates with one destroying a guitar and one with a jump rope in permanent
training.
The rhythm of techno music as a soundtrack increases the psychological mechanism of
Vidal’s works constantly questioning the narrative of our fears and our capacities
to resist.
Alejandro Vidal
Born 1972 in Palma de Mallorca, lives and works in Barcelona.
Recent solo exhibitions: Galerie Adler, Frankfurt; MOT, London; Artra Galleria,
Milan; Insurgent Space, Tirana; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade. He has
recently been showing in group exhibitions at Harto_Espacio, Montevideo; Le Confort
Moderne, Poitiers; Contested Space’ Stazione Leopolda, Florence.
In 2006, he will be included in the group exhibition ‘Youth of Today’ (curated by
Max Hollein and Matthias Ulrich) at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt.
Private view:
Thursday, Sep. 15th 2005, 7pm
play_gallery for still and motion pictures
Hannoversche strasse 1 - Berlin
Opening hours: Wed - Sat :: 14 - 7 p.m.