Cop de Cor. Tobias Arndt
Tobias Arndt, collector.
Relevant voices from the art world share the exhibitions they won’t miss at this year’s Barcelona Gallery Weekend — the ones that captured their hearts at first sight.
On the parcours, I would like to propose the work of Ken Sortais (Galería Alegria), that perhaps gets closest to painting. I am familiar with his sculptural works that often have a playful element and research the relationship between colour and shape and evoke confusions about materiality. I am very curious to experience the wall pieces.
This leads me to Raisa Maudit (House of Chappaz) that often centres around video (or is it simply my view as a video collector?) interacting with other media performance, scenography, text and 3-dimensional elements and also do not lack playfulness. Her trans-feminist view and different narratives highlight questions that imperatively demand a positioning.
Regina José Galindo and Avelino Sala (ADN Galeria) propose a dialogue where feminism including trans-feminism becomes or better is existential. The unimaginable brutality of femicides in José Galindo’s home country Guatemala mark her work. I was recently deeply touched by her performance and photo works jardins de flores (2021) where 25 trans women were covered under colourful fabrics and kept motionless virtually forming a flower garden. I am looking forward to her dialogue with Avelino Sala’s ‘this machine kills fascism‘.
Itziar Okariz (Flash⚡/ethall) also manifests motionless in her video work at ethall. It shows a fragment of a body with a pen written sign. The person tries to remain motionless simulating a still image. For me this work constitutes a key piece in Okariz practice producing meaning through emphatic reiterations of signs or language. While not appropriating the label feminism as too tight, her work does research critiques of normative gender constructions.
This inevitably leads to Eva Fàbregas (Bombon Projects) who unites gender topics in literally the most playful way. Her oversize sculptural depictions of intercourse devices or remains (used condoms) invite to take a more relaxed approach e.g. by sitting or stretching out on them and getting ready for drinks after a long art day.
