2012 – Sistema Operativo SO(S) Operating System

Guernica. Carpet Bombing, 2012

11 enero, 2015
por admin

One of the iconic figures in Guernica is the lightbulb that oversees
the scenario and provides the only light in the otherwise dark space.
Installed in the gallery space is an enlarged real-life version of that
bulb. Next to it is a ladder that seemingly can be used if the bulb
needs to be replaced. The meaning of the bulb has been interpreted
several ways. One interpretation sees it as a man-made eternal sun
or the light of reason, while another points out that in Spanish the
word for lightbulb is bombilla, which is similar to bomba, the Spanish
word for bomb. Taking its cue from the latter interpretation, the
installation also includes a large-scale projection of footage of socalled
carpet bombings, a tactic that was introduced in the attack
on Guernica and later became common in warfare. For example,
German and British forces each used carpet bombing during World
War II, and the Americans relied on it during the Vietnam War.
However, in the context of the installation, the oversize bulb serves
the additional symbolic function of throwing continuous light on the
bombing footage, making sure that this horrific chapter in twentiethcentury
warfare is never forgotten.

English

Guernica. Spanish Pavilion 1937, 2014

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Over the past year Daniel G. Andújar has stolen one million email
addresses on the Internet. During the exhibition he will send the
same message to each of the addresses at a rate calculated to finish
the project by the end of the exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition
can follow the sending of the email on a small monitor in the
gallery space. The email message contains a private (i.e., unofficial)
photograph of the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair. Only a
few official photographs of the pavilion exist, and the private photograph
included in the email is not one of them. Andújar purchased
the photograph on eBay and then cropped the image to show only the
pavilion, thus making it his own work. By distributing this image,
he enables the global public to “visit” the pavilion and reflect on the
message of Guernica.

Guernica. 1/1.000.000 Spanish Pavilion 1937, 2014

English

Guernica. Nichteinmischungsausschuss, 2012

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Theword Nichteinmischungsausschuss—German for the international
Non-intervention Committee that was set up in 1936 to prevent personnel
and material from reaching the parties involved in the Spanish
Civil War—is written in large graffiti-like letters on one of the walls
in the gallery space. Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German representative
at the committee’s first meeting, would later write in his
memoirs, “It would have been better to call this the Intervention
Committee, for the whole activity of its members consisted in explaining
or concealing the participation of their countries in Spain.”
One of the most dreadful examples of this intervention was German
support for the carpet-bombing of the town of Guernica.

English

Guernica. Picasso Communist, 2012

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Recently, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declassified
the files it once maintained on Pablo Picasso. The files on display
in the exhibition show how the agency, concerned about Picasso’s
communist affiliations, followed the artist when he lived in Paris.
The declassification is only partial. Large parts of the information
are covered in black. Making sense of it all is more or less impossible.
The unredacted portions read as an “alternative” history of
Picasso as a political artist. Like art historians proper, the FBI gives
a detailed account of Picasso’s activities as well as his art. The account
includes a summary of an article published in connection with
an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1957.
According to the files, the article, from the communist magazine The
Worker, argues that “PICASSO cannot be understood unless his life
in art and his life in politics are seen as a synthesis of his guiding
philosophy and social outlook.” From an oppositional political perspective
the FBI (likely unaware of the irony) seems to have taken a
similar approach in its investigation of Picasso.

English

Guernica. Universal Exhibition Paris 1937, 2012-2014

11 enero, 2015
por admin

When the Spanish pavilion presented Pablo Picasso’s newly finished
painting Guernica (1937) at the World’s Fair in 1937 in Paris, not many
visitors stopped to look at its nightmarish depiction of the ongoing
Spanish Civil War. Instead, interest gathered around the German
and Russian pavilions and their Nazi and Communist propaganda.
Today, these political ideologies are well known to have been directly
involved in the atrocious destruction that the painting represents,
and Guernica itself has become one of the most popular artworks
in the world, canonized as a seminal statement of the dangers of
political ideology. Guernica 1937 is a discussion of the painting, the
World’s Fair, and their political-historical contexts. Through documentary
material presented in several vitrines and a projection of
footage related to the fair, the installation invites the audience to
openly and critically revisit the event. The installation addresses the
specific case of Guernica but also encourages reflection on the more
general question of how the reception of works of art is mediated
and framed by external circumstances. Moreover, the installation
reminds the audience of the violence that political propaganda all
too often seductively disguises and of the importance art—for example,
Guernica—can play in exposing this violence.

Español

Guernica. Carpet bombing, 2012

22 diciembre, 2014
por admin

Guernica. Carpet bombing, 2012

Vídeo 20’, b/n, sin sonido

Una de los elementos emblemáticos del Guernica es la bombilla que observa la escena y proporciona la única luz en un espacio de lo contrario sumido en la oscuridad. En el espacio expositivo está instalada una bombilla real de gran tamaño y, junto a ella, una escalera que aparentemente se puede utilizar si hay que cambiar la bombilla. Sobre el significado simbólico de esta bombilla hay diferentes interpretaciones: por un lado se interpreta como el Sol eterno fabricado por el hombre o la luz de la razón; por otro, se pretende señalar el parecido de las palabras “bombilla” y “bomba”. Teniendo en cuenta esta última interpretación, la instalación incluye también una proyección a gran escala de imágenes de los denominados bombardeos aéreos indiscriminados, que se introdujeron por primera vez en el ataque contra Guernica y se convirtieron en una táctica bélica habitual a partir de la Guerra Civil española. Por ejemplo, en la II Guerra Mundial tanto las fuerzas alemanas como las británicas recurrieron al bombardeo indiscriminado, así como los estadounidenses en la Guerra de Vietnam. No obstante, en el contexto de la instalación, la bombilla de gran tamaño cumple también la función simbólica de arrojar una luz constante sobre las imágenes, asegurando que este espantoso episodio de la historia bélica del siglo XX no caiga en el olvido.

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Guernica. Nichteinmischung-Ausschuss, 2012

22 diciembre, 2014
por admin

Guernica. Nichteinmischung-Ausschuss, 2012

Pintura sobre muro

La palabra “Nichteinmischung-Ausschuss”, vocablo alemán por el que se conoce el Comité de No Intervención creado en 1936 para impedir el envío de personal y material a las partes implicadas en la Guerra Civil, está escrita en letras enormes a modo de grafiti en una de las paredes del espacio expositivo. Pero, tal y como escribiría más tarde en sus memorias Joachim von Rippentrop, el representante alemán en el primer encuentro del comité, “habría sido mejor llamarlo Comité de Intervención, porque toda la actividad de sus miembros consistía en justificar o encubrir la participación de sus países en España”. Uno de los ejemplos más terribles de esta intervención fue el apoyo alemán al bombardeo indiscriminado de la localidad de Guernica.

Español

Guernica. Picasso comunista, 2012

22 diciembre, 2014
por admin

Guernica. Picasso comunista, 2012

114 impresiones sobre papel

30 x 22 cm c/u

Hace poco, el FBI desclasificó los ficheros que guardaba sobre Picasso. Los ficheros expuestos en las paredes demuestran que la agencia, preocupada por la filiación comunista de Picasso, le siguió cuando vivía en París. La desclasificación es sólo parcial, porque gran parte de la información está tachada, haciendo más o menos imposible entender el conjunto. Las partes que no están tachadas cuentan una historia “alternativa” de Picasso como artista político. Actuando igual que un historiador del arte en sentido estricto, el FBI ofrece una descripción detallada de las actividades de Picasso, así como de su arte. El relato incluye un resumen de un artículo de la revista comunista The Worker, publicado en relación con la exposición en el Museum of Modern Art de Nueva York en 1957. De acuerdo con los ficheros, el artículo sostiene que “es imposible comprender a PICASSO a menos que su vida en el arte y su vida en la política se entiendan como una síntesis de sus principios filosóficos y de su perspectiva social”. Desde una perspectiva política contraria, el FBI (posiblemente sin entender la ironía) parece haber adoptado un enfoque parecido en su investigación a Picasso.

Etiqueta: <span>2012</span>