Simplify, Simplify, Simplify: Jota Castro’s "Universal Exhibition"
Pierre-Yves Desaive
Jota Castro, Oil Shame, 2004.
Even though Belgium is well known in the contemporary art world for its numerous collectors, its capital Brussels is still waiting for an institution capable of promoting today’s art with efficiency. The most interesting places are to be found in Antwerpen or Ghent (in the Flemish speaking part) and in the Hainaut province (in the French speaking part). It is in the latter region, which once was a true El Dorado for charcoal, that some remarkable architectural remnants of the industrial revolution have been turned into exhibition spaces. For instance, the B.P.S. 22 in Charleroi has had an active and interesting policy toward promoting political art, under the direction of its young curator, Pierre-Olivier Rollin.
It is here that the Jota Castro’s recent exhibition raised more questions than it answered. Harshly criticized by the French writer Dominique Baqué in her recent book on arts and politics, Castro has nevertheless become a key figure in the last few years. The simplicity of his statements is an answer to the expectations of a public that is looking for commitment, but rejects the complexity of the political debate. "My work is rooted in everyday life and in the simplification of so called ‘serious topics’," says Castro.
A good example of this simplification can be seen in Oil Shame (2003-2004): the work consists of three oil barrels, one bearing the American flag, the other the Union Jack and the third the Italian flag, out of which pop up life-size puppets of George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi. Castro’s intention is to conceptualize, in the easiest way, the true motivations of the war in Iraq. Similarly, in Euro Garbag (2003), he uses a trashcan filled with a vertiginous pile of paper sheets–referred to as "European documents."
"What I do with my pieces is give some information in order to raise a question," says Castro. But in order to avoid being perceived as "eurosceptical" he picks on Silvio Berlusconi for his fascist related discourse in two different works. Mussolini? Non ha mai ammazzato nessuno (Mussolini? He never killed anyone) (2003) is a life-size figure of Berlusconi, hanging by a foot above a European flag full of spikes. The video Presidenza Italiana (2003) gives the full text of the violent controversy between Berlusconi and deputy Martin Schulz–called "kapo" in Italian–in the European Parliament in 2003.
About his neon No oil in Tibet (2005), Jota Casto says, "it sums up my opinion of the West’s politics vis-à-vis Tibet." Yet the elusive remark leaves many questions unanswered. Isn’t there a bit more to say about this part of the world than can be captured in this slogan? What about the American military involvement in Nepal, for instance–or is the topic too serious to be simplified? Simplification, on the other hand, is the key word for the piece Motherfuckers Never Die (2003): "these light boxes list the names of personalities that I especially loathe;" here, Walt Disney is put next to Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler. And as to the Palestine-Israel conflict, it is summed up by a concrete wall erected in the middle of the B.P.S. 22 building (Grey Wall, 2005), with a little hole through which one can see an Israeli flag lying on the ground : c’est un peu court, jeune homme.
