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7/3/2001

Boarding Time

Centre d'Art Santa Monica, Barcelona

Chema Alvargonzález, Conce Codina, Alberto Peral, Marco Roso.

The exhibition Boarding Time, is based on the idea of the voyage and the mobility as the defining traits of our present and as a notion inseparable from contemporary artistic practice. Moving around is understood in this context, not only as a vital experience and as a source of knowledge, but very especially, as a spark for the confrontation on new situations (other works/other artists/other contexts) and as a dynamic of the operation and integration of other networks and circuits.

This artistic nomadism, that transforms creators into frequent flyers, enables a certain way of life and of understanding the practice of art, in which not only is the role of the artist redefined but also the entire creative process and the fact of exhibiting itself.

The temporary stay in different cities and centres of creation (in Berlin, New York and Paris, among others) thanks to grants for stays abroad for cultural creators offered by the Department of Culture of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) has been the determinant for the elaboration of some of the more recent works of the artists participants in Boarding Time.

The projects presented in the exhibition derive directly from these stays, be it because they have been completed during these months or because the move has been the spark for new ideas that, on the occasion of this show, have been concretised. The projects presented in Boarding Time are, then, the result of these "comings and goings" and, although their subject matter is not explicitly "the nomadic condition," its imprint is apparent.

The video Where are you from? by Conce Codina constitutes a voyage around the notion of origin. The artist ranges with her camera through the streets of Barcelona, Paris, New York, London, Berlin and Mexico, among other cities, and inter-relates with people. Persons of different sex, age, race, nationality and condition become the protagonists of her videos.In Where are you from?, Conce Codina asks people to sing a song from their childhood. The variety of voices and the images that result create a visual archive of people that shows the diversity of identities and the differences among human beings.

The metropolis as an element of reflection, as a labyrinth and as a spark of new realities, meanings and views becomes a constant element in the discourse of Chema Alvargonzález. In Pavelló I, however, the artist evokes an urban presence based on its absence. With his pavilion-labyrinth, the walls of which consist of images in transit and clouds, the artist speaks to us of moving, margins, limits and vanishing points. On approaching the pavilion-labyrinth and entering into relation with the images, the light and the sound that define the spatial architecture, Alvargonzález invites us to cross the threshold that separates the limits between physical reality and mental reality.

The research of identity is the backbone of the discourse of Alberto Peral. Based on photography, Peral utilises the superposition of images to create movement. The three videos entitled Movimiento Danza show the artist making very simple gestures and actions. To experience an extraordinary voyage, Peral seem to be saying to us that perhaps one doesn’t have to go very far, one only has to explore one’s own self and our most immediate environment.

In the installation Agua a chain also appears, not of images but of children who, by a swimming pool, hold hands, close their eyes and make a wish. A wish that can make them fly as far as their imagination.

To Nada que perder, nothing to lose, Marco Roso, in collaboration with Belleza y Felicidad, S.L., creates a pleasant atmosphere, half way between retro and second-hand glamour, in which visitors can sit, read magazines, see two video sequences, listen to musical segments or, simply, relax. The sum of these elements creates a nostalgic atmosphere, not exempt from a certain touch of kitsch, in which visitors can involve themselves in the construction of a story.

Some of the resources utilised by Marco Roso, such as the establishment of collaborations with professionals from different fields, the transfer to the exhibition space of systems in use in other fields of urban life and a polyglotism perfectly well assumed, clearly evidence the conditions of fluidity and the transversality that determine our present.

Time table: Mo-Sat: 11-14 h. / 17-20 h. Su: 11-15 h.

Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Rambla de Santa Mònica, 7. Barcelona

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