Adrian Melis the Value of Absence

Transcripción

1 Adrian Melis the Value of Absence

2 Enric Granados Barcelona In collaboration with Institut de Cultura de l Ajuntament de Barcelona

3 ...Oye asere, mira, no hay pincha, no hay materiales, no hay ná. Que tú quieres que te produzca?... - Listen dude! We ve got no materials, no work, nothing. What do you want me to produce? cuban worker Dedicated to my family, specially to my grandmother Martha Testé

4 Index

5 The Artist as an Accomplice by Miguel Angel Sánchez 7 The Best Effort Ovation Light Off Time to Relax Replacement Points Moments that shaped the world I, II, III The new man and the celibate machine by Tamara Díaz Dreams Production Plan for State-run Companies in Cuba The Value of Absence sqm planned Stock The Making of fourty rectangular pieces for a floor construction Importations Batch I Here everybody takes care of me Night Watch Dreams Production Plan - Artist Interview by Bea Espejo Exhibitions view The Value of Absence New Structures of Production Time to Relax Biography Translated texts (Castellano) Credits Special thanks

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7 The Artist as an Accomplice by Miguel Angel Sánchez What happens to the theory and hermeneutics on artistic practices when discursive and contextual situations change over time? This is a question I ask myself each time I return, or am returned, in current aesthetic readings or experiences, to the cardinal ideas of the past. The answer is obvious: we never start from scratch and a critical biography of a work is always anchored in past reflections. What is of interest, then, is to look at the way in which ideas and artistic practices are updated. Benjamin and his Avant-Garde had responded to the aestheticisation of politics during the totalitarianisms of the 20th century. Later on artists and critics responded to the capitalisation of culture and the growing privatisation of society with the cultural counter-reform of the 80s. Today, when political dialectics and its grand ideological narratives have lost their sheen, what effective strategy is left to art? At a time when the interests of capital both large and small, seem to have supplanted concrete human interests, it would seem that one of the most effective strategies for social art would require a return to the specifically human: engaging, giving a voice to, facilitating testimony, and activate involvement in specific situations. Moreover, if we remember the dangers that Benjamin warned of, namely the trap of falling into ideological patronage by certain left-wing intellectuals who limit themselves to the use of artistic terms expressing empathy for the working class and to a political attitude, and remembering as well that the solution he postulated was that of becoming involved in processes of production, I believe that at present the involvement that I mentioned earlier on could overcome and nullify the dangers of condescension, of ideological patronage and systemic co-optation. It is true that the discursive and contextual situation in the West has changed since Benjamin gave us The Author as Producer * in Today the manufacturing industry, and by extension the working class, have been almost completely dismantled, and it would be difficult to ask artists to get involved in intangible production processes. Artistic involvement must therefore focus on the social problems that continue to manifest in the form of specific situations that are truly unjust, although these 7

8 may at times be vague and difficult to pin down due to their immersion in what Hal Foster identified in the mid 90s as the expanded field of cultural activity. ** It is precisely this expanded, horizontal, synchronous and social field in which the American critic situates his Artist as Ethnographer. This paradigm uses sociological mapping to seek out, above all, the effectiveness of protest. Nevertheless, we know all too well after having spent so much time reflecting on the social and political role of art that an assertion of the relevant hegemonic instruments is not effective per se. On the one hand, understanding does not, in and of itself, help to transform intellectual attitudes and situations. The exploited rarely require an explanation of the laws of exploitation. The dominated do not remain in subordination because they misunderstand the existing state of affairs but because they lack confidence in their capacity to transform it ***, argued Jacques Rancière, and I couldn t agree more. Facilitating this space which generates positive feeling and the redistribution of visibility as well as confidence in transformation is a task that falls to the Artist as an accomplice ****. It is not enough to map out a context and expose oppressive dynamics. It seems that many artists now support the need for such responsibility, actively involving the community, proposing alternatives and taking risks. It is this effectiveness paradigm for the art of political intentionality wherein lies the power of the proposals made by Adrian Melis, including both those made in his native Cuba and those he is working on in Spain, as well as those he will undoubtedly develop over the course of his stay in the Netherlands, set to begin in January Perhaps it is too early to determine whether his proposals and those of other artists such as Bouchra Khalili, Núria Güell, Sharon Hayes, Carlos Motta, Daniela Ortiz and Mireia Sallares, to name just a few, will constitute a long-lasting, solid pillar of contemporary art, although given the circumstances I fear we will continue to need their personal involvement. Now is not the time to relax. Miguel Angel Sánchez Director of Adn Galería October, * Walter Benjamin, The Author as Producer ** Hal Foster, The Return of the Real: The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century. *** Jacques Rancière, Aesthetics and Its Discontents * * * * W h il e I wa s exc h a nging views with Adrian Melis, in response to my question on how he would define his practice of involving parties from outside the art world, he replied that he approached the task as an accomplice. 8

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11 The Best Effort Installation-sound, 4 pedestals, 4 telephones, For the installation The Best Effort (2013), the artist initiated four advertising campaigns in Spain for different jobs. The incoming calls of job-seekers are redirected to one of the telephones that is installed in the exhibition space. Each advertising is connected with one of the four telephones displayed at the gallery. At the same time, each telephone is connected to one speech of the four Spain s prime ministers: Felipe González, José María Aznar, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy. Every time someone calls regarding these jobs and depending on the advertisement, one of the audios is activated and can be heard at the exhibition room. All of them are optimistic and positive speeches about Spanish growth, the creation of multiple jobs, the progress and increase of Spanish economy as well as the development of the country. While the ringing phone itself is ignored and not picked up, the four Spain s primer minister s speeches are replayed repeatedly, making visible the gap between the realities of the working world in the country and the dynamics of contemporary politics. 11

12 Example of advertisement placed on the website : We are looking for staff to work in a club night from Friday to Sunday (boys and girls) good looking and highly-motivated individuals who will have experience in night-club services. We also offer three positions for bartenders to work during the week. Interested applicants please contact: Speech:... We need managers who know how to handle the economy. Spain right now needs a strong and firmly supported government in order to work on getting Spain out of the crisis, and to work to help people find employment. I advocate optimism, up to 5 million jobs have to be created. We are going to work for a united country, which is respectable and responsable, battle against the crisis will be the united Spaniards working together to achieve it. Thank you very much I am very honoured to be here with you today... Mariano Rajoy (President of Spain), 4th of November

13 Installation view, The Best Effort, Adn Galeria, Barcelona, Spain

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15 Register of calls received to the land line conected to The Best Effort Data Base N 1:Kunsthalle Basel. 15

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17 Installation view, The Best Effort, Adn Galeria, Barcelona, Spain,

18 Ovation Video, DVD, color, stereo, 5:00 min, Ovation (2013) is an on-going video loop which assembles images of the Spanish Parliament since the spring of democracy in the 70s. All the selected scenes show images of deputies applauding. This work allegorizes a system that seems to be distant from social reality: it elucidates a ritual of celebrating the passing of laws that are to be derogated upon an eventual change of government, in an everlasting confrontation that has nothing to do with the needs of the people represented by politicians. 18

19 Installation view, Ovation Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

20 Ovation Video, DVD, color, stereo, 5:00 min,

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23 Light Off Installation-environment, variable size, Light Off (2013) is an arrangement of four transparent cubes which are lit internally by coloured lights changing at irregular intervals from green, to red and then to blue. Visitors are invited to take a seat. The lights are connected to a website created by Melis which it-self is connected to the Spanish stock market index, IBEX-35. Via the website s rising, the red light indicates the fall of the index, and during periods of stability, the blue light switches on. During the weekend when the stock market is closed Friday s market developments are repeated. 23

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25 Installation view, Light Off, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland,

26 Time to Relax Sixteen photographs, 80 x 42,3 cm, The series consists of sixteen photographs taken from homes expropriated by banks. The shots are post-produced incorporating the date of eviction and the bank owner of the flat. 26

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29 Installation view, Time to Relax, Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

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31 Installation view, Time to Relax, Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

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33 Replacement Points Twenty photographs, digital print, 66 x 46 cm, In the twenty photographs of the series Replacement points (2013), Melis highlights the tension between presence and absence, voice and silence related to contemporary political and social events. The images taken in the city of Barcelona and its suburbs show freshly painted walls hiding phrases of social protest previously written on. These phrases appear below the photographs, in the form of subtitles that decode neutral images. 33

34 Subtitles Ignorant people usually choose ignorant goverments, Sabadell, Spain. 34

35 Subtitles No cuts in health and education. Everybody out to claim what has been taken away, Barcelona, Spain. 35

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37 Installation view, Replacement Points Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

38 Moments that shaped the world Chapter I: Havana - Berlin Video, DVD, color, stereo, 2:45 min,

39 Moments that shaped the world - Havana-Berlin ( ) juxtaposes the long shot of a nowadays street in La Havana and the audio archive from the CNN live broadcasting the fall of the Berlin wall, in This simple disjunction between image and sound suggests the persistence of an ideological system which already fell apart in certain parts of the world, but still conditions life in Cuba. 39

40 Moments that shaped the world Chapter II: Primavera Sound Video, DVD, color, stereo, 4:29 min, Moments that shaped the world - Primavera Sound (2013) contrasts images from a popular music festival in the city of Barcelona and the audio archive of the manifestations and street protests of the M-15 movement, which marked the most recent socio-political events. The video suggests certain frustration towards political protests which are in the end reduced to mere spectacle. 40

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43 Moments that shaped the world Chapter III: The East is Red Video, DVD, color, stereo, 3:36 min, Moments that shaped the world - The East is Red (2013) shows images of flickering neon lights in the contemporary and developed China contrasting with the audio of an extract from a song entitled: The East is Red about Chinese communism sang by Raul Castro in It aims at portraying the irony of past ideals constructed to build an ideological future path for a country compared to its actual blooming of capitalism. 43

44 The new man and the celibate machine by Tamara Díaz Bringas Module 01: Around 1924 El Lissitzky represents himself in a self-portrait as The Constructor. Module 02: Lázaro Saavedra creates the Metamorphosis series based on his experience on a construction micro-brigade in Cuba in the 90s. In an exhibition in Havana, the same artist wanted to get inside a coffin wearing a builder s helmet but the authorities refused permission. Module 03: Build socialism come what may announced a billboard in my home province, Matanzas, around Module -89: Moments that shaped the world: a still shot captures the movement on what could be any road in Havana. In the meantime, news of the fall of the Berlin wall is reported by various members of the international press. The images released around the world at the time, however, were not broadcast on the Soviet televisions of a small island in the Caribbean. Perhaps this was because the fall was too thunderous to let it invade the collective imagination of a society that was building socialism. Module 04: For a civilised life for productive work can be read behind the picture of a worker on a 1932 poster by Gustav Klucis. Module : Adrian Melis creates a model of a hypothetical industrial estate using unfulfilled projected figures from the production plans of building developers in Cuba. The difference between the plan and the reality amount to: projected square metres. The piece gives proportions to what is never measured, perhaps because failure itself is immeasurable. Module 05: Let us fulfil the plan of the great projects, urged Klucis in one of his 1930 posters supporting the First 5-Year Plan designed by Stalin. Module 06: On a Cuban billboard in 2009, some hard-working ants ask: We work... And you? 44

45 Module -327: Though official policy aims to reduce absenteeism, the project begun by Melis in 2009 increased his own productivity to the same extent that workers managed to be absent: a total of 327 days. An audio recording of the ingenious excuses used comprises the piece The value of absence. Module -20: In a paranoid inventory of what is missing, Stock details, for example, blocks and bags of cement, wooden boards, metal rods, roof tiles, pigs and lobsters. Although the pictures may seem like evidence from the scene of the crime, the details of the absent materials place them in an uncertain zone somewhere between bearing witness and complicity. Module 07: Melis operates inside social relations, in such a way that his practice of art does not represent but rather forms part of the operations of time, work, crime carried out with those he works with. Module -300: In contrast to the tedium of bureaucratic productivity, Dream Production Plan for State-run Companies in Cuba sets as its goal siestas or naps taken during working hours. More specifically, it sets its sights on dreams, small corners of respite stolen away from a totalitarian management of life. Module 08: And if what we were dealing with here as is the case with Duchamp s The Large Glass is a fantastical celibate machine? Perhaps the diverted, vaguely useful, at times hilarious functionality of New Production Structures can be interpreted as a celibate machine which as Deleuze and Guattari describe interferes with the reproductive function of technical machines. Module 0: While the production processes Melis implements may not serve to build that socialist new man, they do on the other hand produce play, invention, involvement, free time, criticism, disobedience, counter-information, interference, bureaucratic delirium and numbers, numbers, numbers. Tamara Díaz Bringas Independent curator and researcher February, Text for the exhibition New Structures of Production Adn Galería, Barcelona. 45

46 Dreams Production Plan for State-run Companies in Cuba Wooden boxes, written paper, photographs 20 x 25 cm, 20,5 x 11 x 2 cm each box, In Dreams Production Plan for State-run Companies in Cuba ( ) the artist focuses on companies that are part of what he designates as the areas that are most vulnerable to lack of productivity. The workers received a notebook from Melis with the instruction to record the dreams they have during their working day, when they fell asleep on the post. In opposition with their unaccomplished official job, the dreams become a psychic production, an active time at the service of another employer: the artist himself even if here, the contribution is not paid. The written narratives are exhibited into wooden boxes that evoke a manufactured product, ready to be sold. They are shown together with a series of photographs documenting the project and its actors. 46

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49 Photograph. digital print, 20 x 25 cm. 49

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51 Photographs. digital print, 20 x 25 cm. 51

52 Production Plan graph Dream 181/300 52

53 Until now, a large number of deams, obtained from the sleeping time of employees during their working hours, have been compliled. The revised places have been offices, warehouses, restaurants, factories and establishments in the agriculture, gastronomic and construction s fields, among others. The number of dreams ranged among 10 and 15 dreams per week to a total of 300 dreams in four months. 53

54 Installation view, Dreams Production Plan..., Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain

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56 Installation view, Dreams Production Plan... Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland

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59 The Vaue of Absence Purchase of Excuses for Absence from your Workplace Video documentation - installation, DVD, color, stereo, 10:20 min, In Cuba dissatisfaction, indifference and a lack of motivation toward the socialist system of production has led to the phenomenon of making excuses to stay away from work. This attitude is made easier by the flexibility and tolerance demonstrated by governmental enterprises towards their employees. The artist is interested in recording the creative mental process involved in making excuses to avoid work. He took advantage of the lack of motivation and got in contact with a lot of people who would get paid for not going to work. People use the telephone as privileged mean to explain their absence at work because in this way they feel as having a wider range of fake stories they can concoct. The artist s aim was to compile as many excuses as possible by purchasing the rights to record the telephone conversations. The price paid for one excuse was the same of the deduction applied to the salary arising from the days of absence from work. Thus, the artist generated a community of people who has received the same amount of money that the State would have paid for their productivity; in this case, however, without having to perform a productive task. An excuse may be effective for the period from one day up to a month, or maybe even longer. Excuses could foster periods of absence in different ways: to obtain a given period of absence (one, three or even more weeks, etc.) a worker could use one single excuse or several. The excuses were paid once the period of absence had ended. 59

60 Recording process Workers calling to their worlplace 60

61 Example of Excuse: - Electric Company, good morning. - Good morning, is Angela, the head of the Economic Department in? - Please, hold on. - Yes? - Good morning. - Look, I m a worker in the company. - Yes? - I have a problem. I m in Nuevo Vedado with my family My mother-in-law died and I think I won t be able to get to work on time. Or I may have to be absent. Tell me, has Manolo arrived? - No, he s not here yet. - Oh, but was he there today? - Well, that s what he was told me, but I really don t know. Do you have something for him in case he comes? - No, I just need to talk with him. I have something to talk with him. Well, apart from what I m telling you of not being able to go to work because my mother-in-law is dead. You understand? - Ok, I ll tell him. - Tell him I need to talk with him that my mother-in-law died. I m in the undertakers but that I want to talk with him because there are some things I want to tell him. Do you understand? Tell him that if he is there early, my mother-in-law will be buried at 4 today. - Ok. - I don t know if I ll go to the burial, but But I need to talk with him anyhow. - Ok. - Tell him to call me to my house. Tell him to call me here. - Ok, I ll tell him. - Thank you. - Bye. 61

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63 Production Plan graph 63

64 Installation view, The Value of Absence, Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

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68 sqm planned Installation, 2.44 x 1.22 cm, model (wood and pvc) vinyl, sqm planned (2012) s point of departure is the activity of Cuban companies that produce materials for construction. Noticing the discrepancy between the companies planned productivity and their true balance, Melis calculated the difference between the prognostics and the real results and virtually used the unproduced quantities to elaborate a model of what could have been built if the production plans had been respected. 68

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70 Model of an industrial park based on the sum of unproduced materials by 4 Cuban companies for construction materials, according to their production plan (monthly, quarterly and a yearly) during blocks of concrete -200 blocks of concrete blocks of concrete blocks of concrete blocks of concrete blocks of concrete -942 blocks of concrete blocks of concrete blocks of concrete -800 blocks of concrete blocks of concrete -723 blocks of concrete blocks of concrete -450 blocks of concrete -205 blocks of concrete blocks of concrete -105 blocks of concrete blocks of concrete blocks of concrete blocks of concrete -840 blocks of concrete m3 reinforced concrete m3 reinforced concrete m3 reinforced concrete m3 reinforced concrete pillars -705 pillars -32 pillars -900 pillars pillars -86 pillars -325 concrete beams -202 concrete beams -97 concrete beams -150 concrete beams concrete beams -870 concrete beams -185 concrete beams prefabricated panels -805 prefabricated panels prefabricated panels -245 prefabricated panels prefabricated panels -609 prefabricated panels prefabricated panels -923 prefabricated panels prefabricated panels -700 prefabricated panels prefabricated panels -603 prefabricated panels -25 blocks of concrete 70

71 Installation view, sqm planned Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

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73 Installation view, sqm planned Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

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75 Stock Twenty photographs, digital print, 20 x 25 cm x 5 mm, forex, The series of photographs Stock (2012) displays a documentary approach to illegal activities. It documents the theft of material from under-construction buildings or warehouses. Each image is completed with a note that specifies the quantity and typology of the subtracted material. The words replace what is absent, giving back what has disappeared and reintroducing the indexical condition of the photographic images. 75

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77 Photograph. digital print, 20 x 25 cm 77

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81 The making of fourty rectangular pieces for a floor construction Video, DVD, color, stereo, 5:30 min, In Cuba, due to a shortage of materials to produce, the workers of a state-run enterprise spend their workday just sitting, waiting for their working time to come to an end. Taking advantage of this still, idle time, Adrian Melis intended to give life to the factory, to generate a new form of movement, of a virtual, apparent nature. Each one of the workers and all together imitated for the whole workday - from 8 to 5 pm - the usual noises heard during the functioning of the factory, such as concrete makers, mixing machines, shovels, trucks, wheelbarrows. 81

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83 Video frame Video caption: - Come on, see about with him! Julio, come here! That guy and you all standing all there. Come on! You are wasting your time there, doing nothing. - Listen dude! We ve got no materials, no work, nothing. What do you want me to produce? Let s move and work, listen, you will be... You are going to be the... I ll be the cement trombone... You will be the pick and shovel... And you are the one who will... C mon, you start... 83

84 Importations Batch I Installation, container, disused object, photographic documentation variable dimensions, Importations Batch 1 (2012) considers the rules governing the importation of products into the territory of the Republic of Cuba. The introduction of certain typologies of commodities, especially computing hardware, is prohibited by the law. In reaction to this official decree, Melis proposes to break apart technological artifacts into pieces, so they can be removed from the category of functional objects and enter easily the country. A container collects some objects dismantled by the artist, who identified each separate component to facilitate the reconstruction once introduced in Cuba thanks to the complicity of people that will carry them into the country. 84

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87 Installation views Importations Batch I, Adn Galería, Barcelona, Spain,

88 Here everybody takes care of me Video, DVD, color, stereo, 5:50 min, This video shows a secretly filmed interview to the director of a company. This director suffers from schizophrenia disorders. Actually these disorders allow him in turn to lead a form of management in which he simulates not to be aware of illicit activities. In reality it becomes a kind of tacit agreement among all. 88 Video frame

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90 Night Watch Video documentation, DVD, color, stereo, 5:30 min, In Cuba, there are institutions usually vulnerable to the deviation of their resources. One of them is the state carpentry. Taking advantage of the artist s relationship with the watchman of certain carpentry, he obtained a determined amount of wood from this institution, to use it for building a watching post to be located inside the very same institution. Such building is the result of a paradoxically useful fact. The watching post was placed in a zone suitable for controlling activities of a similar nature to the one the artist used to create it. This post could be used either by the same watchman involved in the wood extraction, or by others having the same function at this carpentry area. 90

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96 Adrian Melis: Dreams Production interview by Bea Espejo He has never had a physical studio, either in Barcelona, where he has lived since 2010, or in Cuba, where he was born in Adrian Melis creates his projects based on experiences lived on the streets: All of the ideas and projects I have developed have been inspired by conversations with people from outside the world of art. He points to the video Nightwatch ( ) as an example. The video was one of his first pieces as a student at the ISA (Higher Art Institute) in Havana, which he graduated from in It shows one of the Cuban establishments that have fallen victim to a diversion of resources, a State-owned carpentry workshop. Taking advantage of a friendship with one of the security guards, the artist stole some wood to build a surveillance post inside the workshop itself. That, for example, was something I did often before I made this piece, he says. Another project, The Value of Absence ( ), comes to mind. This was also the title of his largest international exhibition to date, held the past spring in the Kunsthalle Basel. Once again Cuba is the setting, and the piece features a compilation of excuses for not going to work collected by Melis. I would buy recordings of the calls made by workers to their workplaces to justify their absence. By that time it was already the workers who were creating the art, as they were fascinated by the idea of getting paid without working. This element of involvement has always been something that makes my pieces understood outside of the world of art. Almost all of my projects involve people. Although the result may be a series of photos or an installation, I always aim for the visual device to be a telescope that reaches other areas. My work method has always been linked to the idea of creating a fundamental core, an argument or a concern. Based on that, the ideas come forth, rooted in this central core, he explains. The focus of this core is on changing the unproductive back into something useful through art. This was the intent behind New Structures of Production, his first solo show at ADN Galería in Barcelona in 2012, which won him the GAC Award for the best exhibition ( Gremi de Galeristes de Catalunya ). It is also the concept behind his exhibition Time to Relax. He says his works are intertwined, almost as if they were part of the same series, and that above all what is most important is the research, the process of construction. 96

97 The usefulness of failure - What is it about art that interests you? Do you have any comments on its lack of utility? - I am interested by art s ability to resolve real life situations or conflicts at the imaginary level. Ever since I started creating art in Cuba, around 2004, I have always noticed art s lack of utility. I come from a socialist, paternalistic system in which I was constantly discovering a scandalous lack of utility at the corporate level. Of course, my response was always: How can I be productive in art if when I look around I see people and an administrative system that are by nature useless? That was when I realised that art was the only possible tool for resolving this dilemma: turning the unproductive elements of a system into something productive. - You re referring to the concepts of value, utility, effort, failure - Yes. I am also interested by the ability that art has to hide or blur some aspects of our social or political reality. While in the exhibition New Structures of Production the central theme was the dichotomy between production and non-production, in Time to Relax what interests me is addressing an issue that relates more closely to the Spanish context: using art as a curtain that seeks to hide a reality through the appearance of well-being. Issues such as the forced lack of utility itself or the failure of a political project trigger a visual cascade that reflects utility, an appearance that all is well. - The topic could not be more relevant. In addition to providing the exhibition with its name, Time to Relax is also the name of a series of photographs taken in 2013 documenting the views from 16 flats in which evictions took place. How did you carry out this project? - In this piece, as in many others in the exhibition, I was interested in the idea of shifting the viewpoints of people that had lost their jobs, showing how they had been evicted as a result. The photographs were taken from the windows or balconies of their former homes; a subjective image which is shifted first from the former owner to the bank and then to the viewer. We can call it a picture with a path that undergoes a process of increasing purification at the emotional level: it 97