TELL ME THE TRUTH
Fine Arts Grants of the Biscay Executive Council 2003-2004
25 May to 9 July 2006
Curated by Beatriz Herráez
Opening: 25th May at 8.00 pm
sala rekalde
Alameda de Recalde, 30
Bilbao 48009
Participating artists: Roberto Aguirrezabala, Zigor Barayazarra, Gorka Eizagirre, Borja Estankona, Kepa Garraza, Alejandro Goienetxea, Enrike Hurtado, Saioa Olmo and Ixone Sádaba.
Tell Me the Truth is an exhibition that brings together the most recent works of nine young artists awarded grants by the Department of Culture of Biscay Executive Council during the two-year period 2003-2004. These pieces are diverse in character and follow different paths in their approach to and understanding of artistic practice. Successes and disappointments meet on the same platform bringing them to public and critical attention. This platform provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the eclectic nature of the courses charted by these artists in recent years. Though these works may be very disparate, they nevertheless share a point of interest: the persistence in a process of research that explores the possibility of creating a system to organise the void and make packages of knowledge manageable.
The exhibition also includes a work by the artist Mark Lombardi (1951-2000) entitled “Frank Nugan, Michael Hand and Nugan Hand Ltd. of Sydney. Australia. c. 1972-1980 (8th Version)”. This work belongs to the Helga de Alvear Collection.
Mark Lombardi believed it was possible to create works which, amid the rising levels of dispersal and confusion, did not limit themselves to displaying a reductive approach to artistic practice, works capable of presenting the complexity, venality and occasional brutality of the times. In his case, he achieved this by employing a process that he described thus: “I am pillaging the corporate vocabulary of diagrams and charts rearranging information in a visual format that’s interesting to me and mapping the political and social terrain in which I live (told to Andy Mann in February, 1997).
A number of parallel activities have been arranged as part of the exhibition. Talks and performances with the following artists and curators will be held:
Thursday 25 May, at 8.00 pm:>
Sound performance by Edorta Izarzugaza
Friday 26 May, at 5.00 pm:
Presentation by Borja Estankona, Kepa Garraza and Saioa Olmo, followed by a talk given by the artist, writer and curator Raimundas Malasauskas
Sound performance by Inazio Escudero
Saturday 27 May, at 5.00 pm:
Presentation by Zigor Barayazarra, Gorka Eizagirre and Alejandro Goienetxea, followed by a talk with the group of curators RMS La Asociación.
Sound performance by Tsezne and Enrike Hurtado.
To accompany the exhibition, sala rekalde will be publishing a catalogue, designed by Albert Folch, with writings and works by the artists, as well as documentation generated during the show. The publication also includes essays by Lars Bang Larsen, Olatz González, Beatriz Herráez, Miren Jaio, Paloma Martín Llopis and Asier Mendizábal and installation photographs by Begoña Zubero.
During the same dates, the Abstract Cabinet of sala rekalde will be showing a solo project by the young Turkish artist Can Altay (Ankara, 1975). In No Bar, Just Bottles, Altay draws together in the format of an installation various moments in his research into the phenomenon of minibars in the city where he was born. The minibar is an occupation of certain urban public spaces by congregations of young people who gather to drink together. The artist examines these temporary gatherings as an exercise in socialisation rather than as a radical appropriation of the urban space. The so-called minibar creates a particular kind of social structure from an architectural vacuum, where the main purpose is the very presence itself of the individuals that have come together.
For further information please contact:
Constanza Erkoreka, Press Office
Tel: ( 34) 94 406 87 07
Fax: ( 34) 94 406 87 54
salarekalde@bizkaia.net
