BCN Producció’08

CARLOS ALBALÁ AND IGNASI LÓPEZ, EFRÉN ÁLVAREZ, ANA GARCIA-PINEDA, RUBÉN GRILO, JOB RAMOS

Curators: Amanda Cuesta, Eloy Fernández Porta and Martí Manen

Bcn Producció’08 is an open call for proposals to which artists can submit any projects for which they need aid to produce, in addition to consultation services throughout the developmental process from conceptual as well as managerial points of view, with the understanding that institutional support for artistic production should go farther than a simple economic subsidy and should expand into other indispensable areas in order to help projects materialise.

For this edition, a jury composed of Amanda Cuesta, Martí Manen and Eloy Fernández-Porta, together with Oriol Gual, director of La Capella, have selected projects submitted by the artists Carlos Albalá and Ignasi López, Efrén Álvarez, Ana Garcia-Pineda, Rubén Grilo and Job Ramos. The chosen projects met the requirements established in the rules and regulations for the call for proposals, both in terms of their complexity and the difficulty of producing them through other channels, though also for the place they occupied in the artists’ careers (some of which are incipient).

And so, Carlos Albalá and Ignasi López showcase a selection from their project Nostàlgia periurbana (Periurban Nostalgia), a collection of photographs and a video installation featuring portraits of urban peripheries about to disappear. Efrén Álvarez introduces for the first time the project Governament, a monumental systemic drawing of the Catalan political map, and its online reflection in the form of a documentary wiki. Ana Garcia-Pineda presents an installation featuring some of the preparatory material accumulated for her book Máquinas y maquinaciones (Machines and Machinations), in which utopian thought is embodied in poetry. Next, Rubén Grilo, who has launched a long-term project about a character who embodies his ideal public, presents a first taste entitled Pròleg a Ev, an array of spin-offs based around a video work. Finally, Job Ramos offers a range of documentary materials recorded on different supports which, though starting out from the subject of the family, also penetrate other dark aspects of our social structures.

Despite its presentation as an exhibition, this first edition of BCN Producción 08 did not develop from a curatorial perspective –meaning the articulation of a museographic discourse linking the different proposals and giving them a conceptual and interpretative pattern– in a voluntary way. In reality, the dynamics of each one of the production processes and the dialogue between the five selected artists have been the true backbone of the open call.

Moreover, leaving the production of the proposals aside, the publication of a catalogue and a book has also begun to take shape. These publications will bring together an ensemble of contributions in essay format regarding the models of production in art that will surge from a series of complementary working sessions articulated around this theme, and which will take place the 25th and 26th of april. Professionals of international prestige will be present as part of this activity.
 

Organized by: La Capella
Colaborate: Canxalant, Hangar.org, Café Schilling
Sponsor: INK,  El Periódico