SPLIT SCREEN
14.09.2017 – 18.11.2017
Exhibition by Carles Congost / Joan Morey
in ACVic Centre d'Arts Contemporànies (Sant Francesc, 1 Vic)
Carles Congost. WONDERS. From 14.09 – 18.10.2017
Opening, Thursday 14th September at 7 pm
Joan Morey. COS SOCIAL. From 20.10 – 18.11.2017
Opening, Friday 20th October at 7 pm
This exhibition brings together the two latest works produced as part of the Video Creation Award granted by the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya*, Arts Santa Mònica, the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya, and LOOP Barcelona, and is complemented by several previous works and referential elements from each artist.
In WONDERS Carles Congost constructs a hybrid of musical biopic, documentary, poetic fiction and reflective essay. It deals with the reggae group Musical Youth, made up of five-year-old boys, who enjoyed great success with their one and only hit song, Pass the Dutchie, in 1982. With the concept of the one-hit wonder as a background, the film interleaves personal anecdotes from two of the group's members, Dennis Seaton and Michael Grant, with readings and performances by Eloy Fernàndez Porta. The screen is filled with new concepts and stories told in mature reflection, and at no point does the film appeal to the bitter nostalgia of ephermeral success. This project brings together customary thematic interests, such as music, pop culture or its subgenres, and deals with the everyday and those common elements of the human condition with sensitivity.
In COS SOCIAL (Social Body) Joan Morey analyses the relationship between the individual and the social through a performance recorded on video with no audience. Since the performance is about an anatomy lesson, a naked body is presented, exposed to the observation and manipulation of a small group of individuals. The performance occurs in the old anatomy theatre of the Reial Acadèmia de Medicina de Catalunya, designed expressly to analyse human dissections, and present subjects for anatomical exhibition, a theatre which here has become a stage. The central charater is, at the same time, a material body and an individual body, in the same way that those who manipulate, analyse and observe the body serve as a reference to a social body which constitutes the basis for the entire higher social and political fabric. The representation of the body dialogues with the presence of the camera, and references other episodes in the renaissance and baroque painting traditions of western art.
The exhibition will be distributed across two spaces. The primary space will exhibit the two video productions, realised thanks to the second and third editions of the Videocreation Award, Wonders in the first month of the exhibition, Cos social in the second. The second is a shared space, presenting videos and other works by the two artists, related to the exhibited works. Carles Congost and Joan Morey have participated in various joint exhibitions, some of them promoted by historian, art critic and curator Manel Clot (Granollers, 1956-2016), with whom they kept up a professional and warm relationship throughout their careers. Both artists have chosen various publications from the Manel Clot library (the contents of which have been deposited with the Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny de Vic) for the second space, related directly or indirectly to the projects, in order to configure a common point of consultation.
The exhibition will be complemented by a performance workshop by Joan Morey, with the aim of explore the performance language as an artistic production tool.
* La Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya comprises: ACVic Centre d'Arts Contemporànies; Bòlit, Centre d'Art Contemporani. Girona; Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida; Centre d'Art Tecla Sala, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat; Fabra i Coats - Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; M|A|C Mataró Art Contemporani; Lo Pati Centre d'Art Terres de l'Ebre, Amposta and Tinglado 2 - Centre d'Art de Tarragona.
CARLES CONGOST. WONDERS (2016)
Carles Congost has earned numerous distinctions during his solid career, such as the Beca de Artes Plásticas de la Fundación Botín (2014), the Premi de Videocreació de la Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya, Arts Santa Mònica, the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya i LOOP Barcelona (2016), the Premi de Videoart de la Fundación BBVA (2015), and the Premi Ciutat de Palma (2016). In 2016, he participated in the international biennial Manifesta 11 in Zurich (Switzerland) with the work Simply the Best.
JOAN MOREY. COS SOCIAL (2017)
He has constructed his career in the field of performance art, with distinctions such as the MAEC-AECID grant for a Spanish and Overseas Artists' and Researchers' residency with the Spanish Academy in Rome (2015 – 16), or the Videocreation Award from the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya, Arts Santa Mònica, the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya, and LOOP Barcelona (2017). Notable recent projects include Tour de Force (2017) as part of the exhibition “1000m2 de desig. Arquitectura i sexualitat” ("1000m2 of Desire; Architecture and Sexuality") at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.
