Chto Delat, One night in a social network. An Opera-farce, 2019, 30’

Curated by the creative, theoretical, and management team PSJM (Cynthia Viera and Pablo San José), In Good Company is an exhibition of films made by international art collectives. The show features a selection of six groups with a long history in the gallery and museum circuit: Chto Delat (Russia), Superflex (Denmark), The Yes Men (USA), Ubermorgen (Austria), The Icelandic Love Corporation (Iceland), and Democracia (Spain). Curating an exhibition of collective art means addressing a specific way of understanding the functions and interests assigned to artistic activity, as the very act of team organization implies a commitment to collaboration over individualism, which is also reflected in the social themes of their work.

The selection of works represents the mature period of these collectives, which, like the curatorial team PSJM itself, began their careers in the 1990s or 2000s. The Canarian team has a shared history with most of these groups, having been included in international books dedicated to activist art (Art & Agenda: Political Art and Activism. Berlin: Gestalten, 2011) and art made by groups (Come Together: The Rise of Cooperative Art and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press N.Y., 2014).

This shared commitment to contemporary social, economic, and political issues is reflected in the themes of the films: robotics, online news leaks, social media fiction, the new economy of cryptocurrencies and data mining, feminist perspectives rooted in nature, consumer ideology, racial conflicts, and growing social inequality.

LOCATION:
Audiovisual Culture Centre
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

DATE:
2022

Democracia, ORDER, 2018, 54’ 15’’

We could distinguish between two types of video art. On one hand, there are videos that function like a moving painting, where you can grasp the idea by watching just a fragment of the loop. On the other hand, we have narrative works with a clear beginning and end. We know that this second type of work requires more viewing time, although artists are often aware that the conditions of exhibition in the art world mean viewers will likely encounter the videos already in progress. This is a recognized condition for both the production and consumption of video art. The works presented in In Good Company belong to this latter category. These productions could, in some cases, be considered short films. Some even include musical genres like opera and farce. The Spanish collective Democracia and the Russian collective Chto Delat both present musical pieces based on librettos—public operas in the first case, and farces in the second. The exhibition features meticulously crafted productions that also include abstract narratives, ironic documentaries, forbidden documents, and fictionalized interviews.

In Good Company marks the first time that the work of these groups is being shown together, offering the public in Gran Canaria an opportunity to see the work of collectives that are not typically exhibited on the island but are frequently shown in international museums and biennials. The exhibition aims to be a bridge between the island and the world, highlighting the value of art created collectively.

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In Good Company is a project selected in the CCA Gran Canaria 2021 cultural projects competition.

Superflex, The Green Island In The Red Sea, 2016, 2K cinemascope, Color, Stereo, 15 min

The project includes a meticulously designed bilingual publication that showcases the video work presented at the CCA Gran Canaria. It features four essays: a prologue by María Pallier, director of the legendary RTVE2 program Metrópolis; a text by our curatorial team; another by international art historian Francesco Spampinato, a contributor to magazines like Flash Art, Kaleidoscope, and L’Uomo Vogue and author of Come Together: The Rise of Cooperative Art and Design (Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2015); and a final essay written by the Canarian curator based in Barcelona, Diana Padrón.