FACES 2019 | Marie-France Veyrat

Castellers de Vilafranca II , 2018, printing with UV / dibond inks, 60x90cm.

Image created from several photographs taken on the occasion of a meeting of "Castellers", recreated with computer programs. The theme deals with the hands, the basic element that supports the lifting of a human construction, at the same time a very powerful symbol of brotherhood and Catalan identity.

It is an imperfect image intentionally transformed to jeopardize the apparent excellence of the computer systems we enjoy today. This work draws on the aesthetics of glitch art, a definition that emerged during the second half of the 20th century, a digital derivation of brutalism which concept consists in the error that has played a fundamental role due to its connection with new technologies.

In short, works where digital defects become unique and singular works of art.

The installation comprises two parts:

The first, located on the left of the photograph, is a sculpture made with expanded polystyrene pieces, designed and drawn by computer, cut with pressurized water machines, glued one by one and covered with paint.

The second is a painted and assembled cardboard box which contains the same number of pieces as the sculpture. They are recessed and arranged in a different way in the drawer but with the pieces of the box we could make another sculpture identical to the first one. Hence the title Carregat i descarregat an allegory to the Castellers who load and unload their human structures on every event.

The open, turned-over lid placed under the box serves as a pedestal.

Finally, everything rests on a recycled pallet, smoothed and painted, sticking out of the ground to give it depth and enhance the shadows. The pallet is simply the base and the support of the work. It represents the public square where the celebration of the human structures takes place, a sociocultural Catalan outdoor event in which Veyrat wants to emphasize the value of constant improvement of the Catalans.

Carregat i descarregat, 2012, installation, treated expanded polystyrene, cardboard and painted wood, 160x120x100cm.

January 31, 2019 → September 29, 2019

Production : Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma I BEEP Collection of Electronic Art

Curator : Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana

FACES . A dialogue between the Es Baluard Collection and the BEEP Collection of Electronic Art

Place : Floor 0

At Es Baluard we continue to present exhibition projects where our collection is linked and collaborates with other public and private collections. On this occasion, it continues with the investigation and dissemination of the advancement of contemporary artistic practices that use image and new technologies, reflected, in the series of exhibitions Reproductibilitat started in 2013.

Therefore, for the year 2019 and coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Es Baluard, we have invited the BEEP Collection of Electronic Art to dialogue with our collection on the main floor of the museum.

Commissioners text :

"Everything we know is an impression of us, and everything we are is an impression of others."

Fernando Pessoa

The exhibition proposes a constructive and transversal reading of the creative processes of different generations of artists and their research on the concept of portrait.

The aim is to find common ground and unexpected readings of works that are often very different between them. On the one hand, we have the works of contemporary art from the Es Baluard Collection and, on the other, the works, mostly interactive, from the BEEP Collection of Electronic Art. The latter represent one of the most innovative expressions of contemporary creation, characterized by introducing new paradigms such as interactivity and participation.

It will be almost impossible to compare such diverse stages and styles and to confront works by Picasso, Miró or Barceló with the robotic and electronic art pieces of artists such as Lugán, Marcel.lí Antúnez or Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. We want to approach the portrait from an anthropological perspective, because these faces represent us in a certain historical moment.

In addition, if until now, in some way, in artistic practice the portrait has been the representation of an absence, with electronic and digital art this absence is reconsidered thanks to the constructive and enriching presence of the public in the creative process.

The exhibition aims to establish a dialogue between works on different media. The dialogues can arise from common interpretations, similarities, subliminal analogies or just an allusion to what can push the public towards a creative reading of the works. We aspire to break the immovable fourth wall among the contemporary art public accustomed to touching electronic works of art and make them perceive other nuances of reading in traditional works. The route is proposed as a continuum, where the visitor will be able to perceive similarities or resemblances that are displayed in an open and rhizomatic way in the exhibition space.

We want all the works to dialogue with each other and for the public to be able to navigate freely through the exhibition, exercising a critical analysis and participating in the proposals for dialogue that we suggest without having to define strict reading parameters. It is not about confronting electronic art and traditional plastic art, it is not about winning a match between different disciplines, the objective is to offer a creative and participatory story inviting the public to interact and maintain an active attitude or, better said, interactive, confronting to works that share a single common thread: the theme of the portrait. In addition, it seems to us an opportunity to inject new life and activate the most conventional works.