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PRESS KIT TO LOSE YOUR HEAD (IDOLS) CATALONIA IN VENICE of imposing itself on us and if this that is done is very similar to that occurs our first reaction is to lose which is inflicted on humans: mutila- CATALONIA IN VENICE— our head.” It is as if the statues have tions, beheadings (very often), their own lives, regardless if the throwing of corrosive liquids or hot TO LOSEYOUR HEAD object is more or less artistic. oil, blinding (paint thrown in the eyes, “Statues are artificial bodies. Like often the colour red to symbolise strange beings they awaken pas- blood), etc. “Statues are living (IDOLS) sions, desires and fears. Statues beings: they seem alive to us. They dominate us. They expose us to that are either worshipped or bother- which we don’t always want to see. some witnesses,” says Azara. They are pleaded with or they are decapitated. Desperate before their The project documents and pres- EVENTO COLLATERALE The Institut Ramon Llull presents THE THESIS disdain, or thankful before an ents various examples of statue DELLA 58. ESPOSIZIONE Catalonia in Venice—To Lose Your The title of the project, Catalonia in unexpected awakening, we react, worship and destruction that INTERNAZIONALE D’ARTE Head (Idols), an exhibition curated by Venice—To Lose Your Head (Idols), either by gracing them with our correspond to the Catalan reality. LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA. Pedro Azara for the Eventi Collaterali already gives us an idea of the gratitude or delivering them a final “A community such as a Catalonia, in the 58th edition of the Venice Art theme of the exhibition - because of coup de grace,” adds the curator with its sacred mountains and A PROJECT BY THE INSTITUT Biennale,. This exposition will take the double meaning of “to lose your about the exhibition. identity myths, does not escape RAMON LLULL CURATED BY place between May 11th and Novem- head.” Through history, when a these human reactions in the PEDRO AZARA: ber 24th. The project is a reflection, political or religious system has However, Western art theory, presence of images,” affirms Pedro MARCEL BORRÀS, ALBERT from an aesthetic and art theory fallen, or when conquests and inheritor of the Enlightenment, Azara. GARCÍA-ALZÓRRIZ WITH point of view, about the particular destructions in wartime have been maintains a very cold vision of THE COLLABORATION OF and intense relationship that human held it is usual that the armies or images. Starting in the 18th century, In a historical moment such a now DAVID BESTUÉ, LÚA CODERCH, beings have with statues. people destroy the statues that and with the new theories about where humans are completely LOLA LASURT, DANIELA ORTIZ, symbolised or personified the fallen aesthetic and art, like those of immersed in the world of images, of PEREJAUME AND FRANCESC The project is located at the regime. We all have memories of Emmanuel Kant, the artistic object every shape and size and type, the TORRES Cantieri Navali in San Pietro island statues literal and non-literal ways began to be viewed as a human idea the project proposes is also a in Venice, and includes the partici- being destroyed falling from their creation capable of reasonably reflection of this human condition pation of the artist Marcel Borràs pedestals, by hammers or being communicating a message or an from the point of view of art theory, as well as various other artists who blown up during a revolution, coup idea, and not responding to any but with anthropological, sociological collaborated in the artist book. d’etat or an invasion. desire or having to satisfy any need. and psychological connotations. With Kant’s theory, art work loses its Furthermore, the exhibitory presenta- To illustrate and contextualise the These statues are also often decap- sacred character and the spectator tion directly appeals the spectator to statue workship and destruction itated, they lose their heads. In their has to be able to maintain a certain confront this phenomenon head on. phenomenon in Catalonia and euphoria and desire for change and distance from the art work. “For worlwide, various sculptural exam- also with the intention of humiliating Kant, if you feel that you want to ples are exhibited. The exhibition the enemy or regime that they want touch the art, that’s fetichism. He space, designed by the architect to overthrow, the destructors also negated spontaneous and primary Tiziano Schürch, evokes the atmo- often lose their heads. And the same reactions provoked by works of art,” sphere of a warehouse full of fallen happens, but the other way round, says Pedro Azara. However, older statues. when we passionately worship a Western art and art in some statue or a monument that rep- non-Western cultures “belong to the resents a historical figure or a god, world of magic, and they are pieces as if the object were in fact the that were never conceived to be subject of said worship. Iconoclasm contemplated by human eyes; only and icondulism are as current and gods and ancestors, invisible beings, as present as in ancient cultures. had access to these and could look Catalonia in Venice—To Lose Your at them.” Head (Idols) is an exhibition that documents the complex lives of What the project wants to explore is statues, which some present-day the fact that despite the 18th centu- artists recreate and reflect upon. ry interpretation of art as object that has been upheld up to the present In the words of the curator Pedro day, human beings have not at any Azara, “the destruction and worship moment lost that “magic” connec- of images is a universal phenome- tion with images, and they continue non” and often it’s very difficult to to workshop and destroy them with “keep a cool head” because it’s very the same resolve as in antiquity. possible that “the image is capable When they are harmed the damage 2 3 IMAGE WORSHIP is a sentiment of the Antonio López Monument, that dates back to ancient times, by Frederic Marés, from a square in and at the same time it is complex Barcelona, because of López’s THE EXHIBITION and ambiguous. Plato was already history in the slave trade. distinguishing between icons PROJECT (images that make us see supernat- THE VIOLENT AND CRUEL ural spirits and beings without DESTRUCTION of statues has also confusing the two), and idols (imag- been a common practice through es that are considered to be super- the ages. In antiquity statues that natural beings), which gave raise to did not respond to human requests different attitudes: reverence and were whipped, demolished or “idolatrous” worship. With religious destroyed. The extreme cruelty in statues the line between veneration the mutilation and beheading Catalonia In Venice—To Lose Your of flowers...) which they will have and worship is very undefined - it is responds to the consideration that Head (Idols) consists of four main gotten from a vending machine of difficult to know if one is praying the statue is a living being. If it is parts: objects to worship or destroy before the statue or directly at the destroyed then its power and statues. The interactive sculpture (a deified effigy, like for example what influence over us is taken away. 1 refurbished vending machine) by currently happens with the Easter Attacks on monuments are fre- THE PERFORMANCE, ‘E.Y.M (a f****** vending machine)’ “passos” (processions of lifelike quent: the Monument als Caiguts ‘SHE APPROPRIATES IN PRESENT’ will be physically at the exhibition, wood or plaster sculptures that (Monument to the Fallen) in Barcelo- by Marcel Borràs, in which a group and will be complemented by a show individual scenes of the events na, by Josep Clarà, has received of about twenty people are taken on series of photographs that reflect of Jesus’s arrest and burial, or of the numerous attacks over the course a guided tour around the street of upon the idea of the appropriation Virgin Mary showing grief) or with of history; or the most famous case San Pietro di Castello island. There that the actor/ quietist makes of the the “Maredédeus” (wooden sculp- in recent years, the mutilation and are five stops o n the tour where the sculptures. tures of the Mary, Mother of Jesus, graffiti on parts of the Equestrian spectator comes face to face with and to which there are celebrations Monument of Francisco Franco, by some of the images that make up The visits start at the vending and worship). In other cases, sculp- Josep Viladomat, during an outside the sculptural and theoretical body machine and will take place over the tures do not directly or faithfully exhibition at the Cultural Center of of the exhibition. During the tour the course of three days - May 8th, 9th represent the revered person or the Born neighbourhood in Barcelo- curator Pedro Azara and the artist and 10th, during the vernissage of deity, but this is not a problem. na. This sculpture had already been Marcel Borràs will contextualise the Biennale. Francesc Carulla, sculptor of the graffitied and beheaded before. each of the recreated pieces. monument, “The Shot,” an homage Registration required at to Johan Cruyff at the Camp Nou, These sculptures are: Monument to [email protected] home stadium of Football Club Lluís Companys, by Francisco Barcelona, says: “The figure is not López, in Barcelona; The Shot, by inspired by Johan, but that’s irrele- Francesc Carulla (dedicated to vant, because Johan is everywhere.” Johan Cruyff, at the Camp Nou stadium); the Monument to the TO BLEMISH INTERVENE OR Fallen, by Adolf Florensa, Joaquim DISFIGURE are common ways of Florensa and Josep Clarà (which negating an image.

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