La Singularitat és subversiva

LA SINGULARITAT ÉS SUBVERSIVA (Singularity is subversive)

Hannah Collins, Joan Fontcuberta, Pedro G. Romero, Perejaume, Jana Sterbak

2015-2018

To enter into oneself is to discover subversion.

Edmond Jabès, Le petit livre de la subversion hors de soupçon, 1982.

In a globalised world that tends towards uniformity and the obliteration of differences, there is no doubt that every singularity is suspicious. This is why singularity is subversive. And yet, in a common world only singularity can make this more humane and more liveable world possible. Artists, writers, and thinkers have always made their singularity the base of their work. Singular and plural. The sum of singularities, of each person, makes us richer, more complex, collectively, culturally, and socially. So, this plural project La singularitat és subversiva is a celebration of singularity with the contribution of original works by five emblematic artists who stand out for their lyrical, radical, experimental, and subversive work: Hannah Collins, Joan Fontcuberta, Pedro G. Romero, Perejaume and Jana Sterbak.

Manuel Guerrero Brullet

The project takes its name from the phrase that Edmond Jabès wrote in Le Parcurs (1985) and which, years later, he recouped in Un Étranger avec, sous le bras, un livre de petit format (1989): “Singularity is subversive”. This idea gives rise to an artistic project that invites reflection on singularity and subversion, echoing the words of Jabès: “To enter into oneself is to discover subversion”. A wooden box contains the 5 pieces that make up the proposal. The box, as well as being a containing folder, serves to display one of the pieces.

The work Stress by Jana Sterbak is an artistic representation that seeks to provoke a reflection about the interpretations and manifestation of violence implicit in our current society. This work takes the form of a vignette and uses the technique of photogravure for its reproduction. In the drawing, one can see a scene in which there are two figures. One of them seems intent on hitting the other, who covers their head with their hands. This representation implies a situation of imminent violence, yet it is not shown explicitly. In this way, implied violence suggests the presence of a threat or latent conflict.

Hannah Collins proposes a photographic composition. The image situates us in the rooms of the Museo del Prado, where the painting El sueño de Jacob (The dream of Jacob) by José Ribera is on show. Collins situates the figure of person who could be identified as someone sleeping in the street. The image invites us to question ourselves about the conventions imposed on our cultural traditions or cultural colonialism, and, at the same time, it also talks of the social inequalities we experience in the 21st century.

Pedro G. Romero leads us, through irony, to question some of the postulates of most recent art history, such as the conceptualism of Joseph Kosuth or the suprematism of Kazimir Malevich. With reference to One and Three Chairs (Kosuth, 1965), Romero proposes a similar game with his piece, Piedra (2017) and its own definition. The work is made up of three parts, as in Kosuth’s piece. Here, Romero makes a similar play on the word pedra (stone) and shows a piece of slate, the photograph of the same piece, and the definition of the word pedra. In this case, however, the game the artist proposes is expressed in the personal, ironic reflections on the word defined. The paradox lies in that we are talking about a serialised multiple, in which we find as many stones as there are different photographs, thereby calling into question the very idea of the multiple, given their nature as originals.

Joan Fontcuberta, with his work Trames denses de la història i mis-teris elegants, presents a photographic triptych made up of a night sky from the 11 September, a cobweb with drops of morning dew and the image of a weft provoked by the degradation over time of a photographic plate. This piece connects with the “Trauma” series, in which the artist reflects on these processes and their conceptual and aesthetic repercussions. Even though the three images are formally similar, they evoke different realities. Fontcuberta plays with this equivocal ambiguity, with the irony and poetics typical of his language. The artist situates the viewer with the need to explore what is seen and what seems to be visible.

Perejaume, with the print Petjades de la marededéu de passasumada (2018), makes the sheet of paper a transitable space. The placement of the footprints of the mother of God in a regular step that transcends boundaries, that is the footprints go beyond the physical margins of the paper, serves to symbolise the connection between religious and cultural traditions and contemporaneity. This transcendent action of the footprints represents how tradition is kept alive and influences the world today. It is a powerful metaphor that reminds us how the roots of tradition and culture are important to understand and explore contemporaneity.

The images of Petjades de la marededéu de passasumada (Footprints of the mother of God of Passasumada) and all the different sizes of feet that appear in them, were exhibited at the MNAC, in Maniobra by Perejaume and were published in Mareperlers i ovaladors.

The edition contains:

5 works of varying dimensions:

Jana Sterbak, Stress. Photogravure on Hahnemühle paper, 300 g, 59,4 x 42 cm.

Hannah Collins, Jacob’s dreams. Digital giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, 308 g, 42 x 59,4 cm.

Pedro G. Romero, Piedra. A set made up of three elements. Photograph printed as a digital giclée print, on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper, 315 g, 29,3 x 29,3 cm; piece of slate, 3 mm thick of 25 x 25 cm; and text printed on Canaletto Liso Bianco paper, 29,3 x 29,3 cm.

Joan Fontcuberta, Trames denses de la història i mis-teris elegants. A set made up of 3 photographs printed with giclée, on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper, of 315 g, two of which are 42 x 59,4 cm and one is 59,4 x 42 cm.

Perejaume, Petjades de la marededéu de passasumada. Intaglio photogravure, with 12 templates printed on Abaca paper, hand made at Molí Paperer de Capellades, on paper size 39 x 172 cm.

Text by Manuel Guerrero Brullet, La singularitat és subversiva.

Wooden box/frame container made of beech wood.

Design by Jaume Roure.

The edition is made up of:

65 complete portfolios, signed and numbered from 1/65 to 65/65.

6 Artist’s proof (PA) folders, signed and numbered from PA I/VI to PA VI/VI.

1 portfolio BAT.