art in search of sustainability

If we continue to see paintings that represent an Annunciation, a mythological scene or a portrait of braces, it is not because we believe in Mary's virginity, we know who the centaurs were or we are going to show our respect before a monarch. Being a believer, knowing the mythological stories or the identity of the king portrayed undoubtedly increases the enjoyment of contemplation, but what maintains our interest in all these paintings today is not their content but rather their form. Or, to put it another way: although its history is unknown or indifferent to us, its plastic dimension is enough for us.

I think about this as I walk through the exhibit With your feet on the ground, where the story is often more interesting than the work. The motivations, reflections, materials used, as the cards say, are so elaborate and peculiar that they compete with the artifact. In fact, I would like to know in depth the work of each of the artists, as the works are often presented to us as the tip of the iceberg of larger projects.

This exhibition is the second part of a curatorial project started in 2020 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. It is organized around these six axes: Gender, race and colonial footprint; There is no outside; Beyond anthropocentrism; Aquatopias; Learn from indigenous knowledge; Back to the Future. Below are the most pressing problems: the need for new models and concepts to face the future; recognition of the value of knowledge from marginalized cultures; the environmental crisis in all its variants of contamination and extermination, caused by a mode of production that we apparently cannot change…

The reuse of materials or 'in situ' production are some of the measures adopted by curators

The selection of artists is very wide, 35 from 17 countries, with a significant weight from Northern Europe and South America. Known names are present (Mattingly, Eliasson, Greenfort…) and others with local projection. Eight of them, Spanish. With them we cover the genres of current art: installations, photography, video creation, animation, textiles and sculpture. Among the most suggestive works, I highlight the video entitled terraforming (2017), by Michael Najjarwhich combines the frozen landscapes of Iceland with the deserts of Mars.

I also think it's correct A Guide to Breathing (2020-2022), the oppressive installation of Marija Markovic: images of air pollution that change at the speed of a tachycardia appear on a screen and, behind, a background of photographs of indoor plants that supposedly purify the air. This same utopian air emanates from the dragon tree that provides oxygen to Santiago Morilla, pedaling his bicycle. I confess that I am fascinated by the work of bozhengwhich since 2016 has registered its love affairs with ferns.

For your part, A. Sprinkle It is B.Stephens they propose us a lubricant Ecosexual Manifesto 3.0 (2011), in which they declare themselves lovers of the Earth. It's also very powerful forest mind2021 the masterful video of Ursula Bieman, in which some indigenous women talk about the knowledge of the jungle. the south african Lungiswa Gqunta created one of the most plastic works: barbed wire clotheslines. And PSJM one of his notable “Social Geometry” pieces, an interlaced diagram titled Global energy use from renewable and non-renewable sources from 2000 to 2050.

In my very personal opinion, the exhibition, although it presents several artists based in the Canaries, is arbitrarily “international”. In other words, its members could very well be anyone else. To this standard ecumenism, typical of major contemporary exhibitions, is added an “anti” rhetoric that is also current for me. One example among many, is said referring to a participating radio, the multiversal akgc: “They build their collaborative practice by drawing power from resistance, decolonial, ecofeminist, queer, anti-capitalist and anti-fascist thought and actions. They strive to formulate alternatives to the current necropolitical capitalist system.”

At the other extreme, as one of the signature successes, is what the curators call the “Sustainability Guidelines,” referring to their strategy to limit ecological and carbon footprint that comes with an exhibition like this. The reuse and recycling of materials, the production on site (i.e. no transport) and various other measures are proof of how much you can do if you take what you think seriously and is an example of consistency in relation to the contents of the exhibition. I'm incoherent when I fly to Las Palmas to review an exhibition that has sustainability as one of its main arguments.

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