| Why are people who live in different cities or different neighborhoods, who have different occupations and interests, attracted by the same works and to the same artists? Why do we have the same taste for certain themes or ways of dealing with them in exhibitions or biennials? Is the tradition of the new so strong that it attracts any of us who are used to seeing contemporary art exhibitions? Do we all react in a similar way to the impulses of the art magazines and publications that we receive on a regular basis? These are some of thee questions I asked myself when I began to study the pieces included in the Pe.car Collection. |
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Carlos Urroz is the curator of recent exhibition Generational Issue, which was held at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea.
Why are people who live in different cities or different neighborhoods, who have different occupations and interests, attracted by the same works and to the same artists? Why do we have the same taste for certain themes or ways of dealing with them in exhibitions or biennials? Is the tradition of the new so strong that it attracts any of us who are used to seeing contemporary art exhibitions? Do we all react in a similar way to the impulses of the art magazines and publications that we receive on a regular basis? These are some of thee questions I asked myself when I began to study the pieces included in the Pe.car Collection.
One of the criteria for inclusion in the collection, as explained by its founders Maria José Iriarte and Carlos Vallejo, is that an artist be from their generation. They and I frequently discussed the visual referents of our childhood, and the way in which we as a generation access images, particularly via television and the media in general.
This conversation is now also an exhibition: Generational Issue. Cuestión Xeracional aims to juxtapose the work of individuals born in the 60s and 70s in order to extract a common sentiment.
The show is divided into three sections. The first, the city, is understood as a collection of buildings, people, and situations. The façades of Frank Thiel and Sarah Morris are set against the images of the rubbish of Ester Partegàs; where the playful spaces of Pierre Huyghe and Carsten Höller take us to the abstract painting of Sue Ling Wang, and where the images of architecture appear in the video program Vidas Urbanas (“Urban Lives”). Here the works of Allora and Calzadilla, Slater Bradley, Regina José Galindo, Muntean/Rosenblum, John Pilson, Sergio Prego, Julian Rosefeldt, and Hans Schabus are seen as if in a TV miniseries. All these works correspond to a truly urban generation, where the natural landscape is that of streets, and the countryside is exoticized yet always includes a return date.
The second grouping is inspired by science fiction. It has brought together artists as disparate as Manu Arregui, Angela Bulloch, Tacita Dean, Mariko Mori, and Bjørn Melhus. These artists’ works reference the present and future and combine them into a single entity where tomorrow’s architecture and archaeology are seen today.
The third and final section includes Fikret Atay, Dr. Lakra, Jon Mikel Euba, Pierre Gonnord, Sam Taylor Wood, Santiago Sierra, and Eulàlia Valldosera. These artists create intense images that are rife with dramatic tension, and which present visions of unexplained events and peculiar explorations of subjects and bodies. Readings are open-ended and at times dark. Generational Issue touches on questions and issues that appear in each of our lives, regardless of our personal situation.
