March 1 – April 5, 2014 Temp Art Space
Opening Reception – Saturday March 1, 7 – 10pm
47 Walker Street, New York, NY 10013
Curated by Imma PrietoArtists: Daniel G. Andújar, Eugenio Ampudia, María Cañas, Mateo Maté, Chus García-Fraile, Jordi Colomer, PSJM, Avelino Sala, Marta de Gonzalo and Publio Pérez, Núria Güell, Jorge García, and Pelayo Varela
TEMP Art Space and Spain Culture New York – Consulate General of Spain: Member of the Network Spain Arts & Culture are pleased to announce Hic et Nunc, a curatorial project gathering a selection of artists whose works demonstrate how art stands as a symbolic act of resistance to the affronts that characterize our society. Hic et Nunc (Here and Now) is a proposal to look and see without complexes. Twelve audiovisual works respond to a cumulus of social inequalities and political humiliations, offering an open interpretation of politics that departs from the Aristotelian definition zoon politikon (political animal).
This consideration, which examines the place of the citizen as an active participant. This idea implies the imperfect parts that constitute those in democracy, locating citizens in a space with no visibility. Neoliberalism, nationalism, state, and economy are just some of the concepts that designate our present time. An enlightened absolutism with a numeric root, based on individual greed, has led and leads our future, from yesterday and today.
The sum of the works is a direct response to the conceptual framework. Each one of them is addressed to a recognizable and familiar “space-time.” The videos range from poetical works by Eugenio Ampudia or Pelayo Varela, to concrete messages by Núria Güell, Jordi Colomer, Mateo Maté or Daniel G. Andújar. Some works set out paradigms on issues relative to state theory like Chus García-Fraile or the PSJM collective. Others, like Avelino Sala or Jorge García, concentrate on the individual and loss of faith. Not without irony, the works of Marta de Gonzalo and Publio Pérez or María Cañas propose a reflection weaving history and everyday life. The ensemble also draws three lines of reflection, which are dissected from an analysis of man and the environment: memory and history, state and economy, individual and otherness.
The current situation leads to a kind of cul de sac in which the final question seems to swing between the election of libertarian chaos and the dogmatic order. But as suggested by Tzvetan Todorov in his essay “The Intimate Enemies of Democracy”, the question lies in favour of other categories that allow reflection without prejudice from an angle that opens new decisive paths. This road requires questioning the agents of the initial poor plan. This idea is the intention of Hic et Nunc – to recognize oneself in an anonymous and legitimate geography. From here, viewers may point out past and present cracks and mistakes in order to carry out the change that suggests etymologically the only concept presented as the standard of the current situation. That is, crisis and change. Returning to Aristotle (Poetics), reason acts by separating, breaking and deciding the texture of the fabric. Reason becomes krinein, makes crisis, and becomes critical. This is to recognize the crisis as the need for change to create and understand art as an act of resistance made under the influx of critique.
Video Art Works:
Eugenio Ampudia, Hur, 2012.
María Cañas, Mi Lucha, 2011.
Jordi Colomer, Co-op City, 2010.
Marta de Gonzalo y Publio Pérez, Baila la contrarreforma, 2012.
Jorge García, Pequeños ensayos sobre la desesperación, 2013.
Daniel G. Andújar, A vuelo de pájaro, 2013.
Chus García-Fraile, Cuestión de fe, 2012.
Núria Güell, Intervención, 2012.
Mateo Maté, Actos Heroicos, 2011.
PSJM, El ocaso de los estados nación, 2012.
Avelino Sala, Autrui, 2011.
Pelayo Varela, Cabeza borradora, 2013.
Duration: 1h30
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