One here feels more uninhibited than the Hulk on a bad day. There will be about thirty porcelain figurines with Diana background. You walk next to the bookshelf with a hesitant step. That sparkle in the eyes that precedes a prank. You take a laughing clown without finesse. No one yells: “Be careful!!!”. No mother or grandmother around looks at you with a disapproving face. clin! Clone! Plop! The vintage sound of “I’m going to kill her”. Here it is considered a work of art.
It is one of the ‘performances’ of the new exhibition Santa Monica art center (The Rambla, 7). Has become the paradise of the stressed. Anyone can come smash figurines against a dartboard. No regrets. Without excuses. No sorry. “There are people who give me the Thank you” Xesca laughs.
Xesca Salva. 43 years old, Mallorcan, set designer. interactive artist. What she likes, she says, is making people play. She has spent two months collecting porcelain figures: 400 in total. Yes, she has emptied all the second-hand shops in Barcelona, she promises. Many, many visits to the charms. “I wanted them to be second hand figures -the 400 are-, that they had stories. Many are broken and glued. They all have a charge & rdquor ;. Some have even left their own home. “I told my mother: ‘Give me something’ -he laughs-. But I didn’t tell him it was to break up, just that they wouldn’t come back & rdquor ;. It seems that there is no compassion when there is a target in between. So far, only one dog has been pardoned.
Why don’t you ride one? mini room of ragethey tell him now. It could be a business. In Vilanova there is one in the Axerum leisure center: they give you an iron bar and a room to destroy: plates, glasses, printers, computers. Nor that they were the hard drives of Bárcenas. The target of Santa Mònica has become a new ‘hot spot’ where you can bring out the inner Hulk. “I didn’t think people would come here desperately,” Xesca snorts. I believed just the opposite. That they would see the figures and it would be difficult for them to take the step of breaking them. And no, no, not at all -he laughs-, what’s up, what’s up & rdquor ;.
“Can I really do it?”. It was one of the most repeated questions during the opening of the exhibition, last week. 100 pieces of china were smashed in a single day. The star request: “Can I bring figurines from home?”. “I hadn’t thought about it before –replies the artist-, but yes, of course you can. Many people ask for it & rdquor ;.
It is not easy to choose. 32 fit on the shelf. Stylized poses are seen with an air of Lladró and bait of ‘pongos’. Only one per person is allowed to be broken. “To share the pleasure & rdquor ;, the artist laughs. The public, she says, ends up lining up to finish shattering the pieces that remain under the target. “Wow –Xesca is still surprised-, how much need to break things”.
“East”. You choose a smiling clown trying not to cross your eyes. You grab your victim with rookie clumsiness. You look for the photo on the mural next door: there are the 400 figures of the ‘performance‘. You fill out a card in a catalog plan and staple the photo. Now you can go crash it to the target. express release, You still don’t really know why.
‘An incoherent body’, the work is called. “The body that the catalogs said you had to have –explains its ideologue-. It’s all very ideal. Whatever figure it may be, there is always the idea of happiness”. that would be the moral of the artistic experiment, as soon as you scratch. It is a game with underground layers, invites the artist. “Each one chooses in which layer he plays & rdquor ;.
First layer: Instagram. Pure and hard posture: you throw the piece in front of the camera with a selfie smile. they rain on you ‘likes’ with clack.
Second layer: “What do the little figures say to me?”, Xesca throws the reflection into the air. “Everyone has these objects at home,” she details. Is a layer of intimacies. What do I do with them? Do I decide to throw them away? So it is no longer to take a picture of me on Instagram, but because I have a link”.
artistic archeology
You can still scratch a little more. Third layer: “All the social and political burden that these pieces have –concludes the artist-. are full of stagings of power. Many are women, always happy, happy couples, happy children, couples that kiss each other. What is the idea of society What are we transmitting through the figurines we have on the shelves?”.
The sample will have second part. “For me the work of art – Xesca details – will be the remains that will remain on the ground”. The fragments of the 400 figures will become fodder for the artistic archaeology. “I will do an open activity where people can come to act as an archaeologist -he advances-. Investigate what has remained, as if it were the near future & rdquor ;. How the remains reflect society. And there would still be a third stage: “Rebuild another different body, reinterpreted & rdquor ;.
alien contact
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It is not the only corner of the Santa Monica where to shatter the tradition. A tour of the former convent and you even want to be abducted by aliens. At least the two mesmerizing reptilians of Robert Llimos: realistic paintings, he defines, of the UFO sighting that he assures he witnessed in Brazil more than a decade ago.
‘The tradition that crosses us’is the title of the new exhibition at Santa Mònica, the second since Enric Puig Punyet took the reins. “An experimentation space&rdquor ;, this is how the director now sums up the center. Creative chup-chup with a moral. Until May 1, twenty artists debate around a question: “How do we face today the tradition that crosses us and hurts us? & rdquor;. The response includes up to dark room.