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ART AND SCHOOL 09. 2019-2020

AE06 Vedruna 01 brFICTION
Art i Escola 09

For the 2019-20 school year, ART I ESCOLA (Art and School) proposes the theme of FICTION. Participating schools may take many different approaches to this theme.

> WHAT IS ART I ESCOLA? 

> FICTION. Is everything what it seems, or is nothing what it seems?

 

ART I ESCOLA 09
FICTION
Is everything what it seems, or is nothing what it seems?

Art, as a language and a means of expression, rarely seeks to represent reality in a faithful way. And, in fact, as a message created and mediated by an artist, it will never be reality in itself, but an interpretation of it. Some artists, too, play with and experiment with perception, distortion, illusion, lies and, ultimately, with fiction.

In talking about fiction, we must talk about narrative. A story, a tale, that anecdote which someone told you, things you’ve heard from your grandparents, a folk tale, cinema, science fiction and its internal coherence, among other things.

Telling what we would like to happen, a wish we have, a hope.
Dreams.
Magic, the invisible. Intangible things. Rituals. Games. Imagination.

Theatre and, obviously, stage sets, costumes, masks.

Disguises and camouflage, in human beings, and in animals which, in the face of the threat of predators, pretend to be dead or imitate other animals. The panda ant is, in fact, a wasp, the caiman butterfly is taken for a reptile, and the scarlet snake tries to look like a coral snake. The imitator octopus (thaumoctopus mimicus) is not content to camouflage as one undersea creature, but can mimic the physical appearance and movement of more than fifteen different species.

Lies are fiction. We can lie in a fake documentary, with fake news.
What is happening in today’s society? We live in an era that many call "the society of spectacle."
Where is the reality, what is truth, fiction or lies?
Do social networks distort reality?
What relationship is there between the real, the palpable, and the digital worlds?
When technology allows us to change reality in a completely imperceptible way, where do we draw the line?

Is the true self different from the self-image one presents?

Fiction, therefore, can be told through art, cinema, philosophy, literature, technology, the natural and social sciences, and certainly by using many more approaches which you will explore during this school year.

EXAMPLES
A number of artists who, using various disciplines, play with and question fiction:

Joan Fontcuberta
"In front of a photograph we feel overwhelmed by the power of authenticity which images possess."

Interview with Joan Foncuberta at L’Ànima (TVC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw0YaAs7NxU

- Fauna (1989) - http://catalogo.artium.eus/dossieres/artistas/joan-fontcuberta/fauna-1989

- Aerolits (2000) - http://catalogo.artium.eus/dossieres/artistas/joan-fontcuberta/aerolitos-2000
Project about blocks of ice which fell from the sky in the year 2000.

- SPECTRA, lecture regarding a project about the supposed disappearance of an astronaut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9byuSGbaa4
(good example of fiction and criticism of the power of the media)

Stan Douglas https://elpais.com/cultura/2016/04/20/babelia/1461165104_681072.html

https://www.davidzwirner.com/news/58th-venice-biennale-carol-bove-stan-douglas-and-njideka-akunyili-crosby - artist at the Venice Biennial of 2019

Jimmie Durham - http://www.kurimanzutto.com/en/artists/jimmie-durham

Ana García-Pineda

- "La ficción es una realidad por suceder". Fundació Miró, 2016 (Fiction is a reality waiting to happen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HalROIPfOnQ 
The artist explains how she understands fiction, which is the basis of this exhibition.

Martine Gutierrez - http://www.martinegutierrez.com/ About the body, fashion, mannequins, identity, genre.

- Girldfriends (2014): http://www.martinegutierrez.com/girlfriends.html

- Body en Thrall (2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC7MsCxbDV8 for the magazine she has created herself Indigenous Woman (2018) https://www.domestika.org/es/blog/1594-martine-gutierrez-explora-su-identidad-y-sus-raices-indigenas-a-modo-de-autorretrato

"Society perpetuates rigid constructions: fabricated dichotomies such as "male" vs "female", "gay" vs. "straight", "minority" vs "white", "reality" vs "fantasy", "dominant" vs. "submissive", etc. But our interpretation of these constructions is subjective and not immutable. Reality, like the genre, is ambiguous because it exists fluidly."

Martine Gutierrez

Anish Kapoor – Artist who creates illusions with materials and spaces using sculpture.

- Decent Into Limbo
- Shelter - http://anishkapoor.com/82/shelter

René Magritte – Surrealist artist in the first half of the 20th century. He questioned reality using concepts, the relationship between the represented and the real. https://historia-arte.com/artistas/rene-magritte

- cecí n’est pas une pipe (1928-29)

Christian Marclay - https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/christian_marclay

In several of his works he uses fragments of existing films, to create his own story : Video Quartet (2002), Crosfire (2007) o 48 War Movies (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hx4Mn7EX88

Laure Prouvost

The Deep Blue Sea Surrounding You - A project that describes a journey from the suburbs of Paris to the Pavilion of France at the Venice Biennial of 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsYLtPpLvOI

Larisa Sansour - https://www.larissasansour.com/

- Monument for Lost Time (2019) https://www.larissasansour.com/Monument.html

- A Space Exodus (2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNAuSrp6tk

Interview where the artist talks about her career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59q3L3tQgYI

Cindy Sherman – Through photography and by using her body, she considers the role of women, the artist, etc. https://www.wikiart.org/es/cindy-sherman

http://masdearte.com/especiales/cindy-sherman-nunca-se-autorretrato/ - Article about her work.

Traves Strachan - https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/tavares-strachan-the-idea-of-a-parallel-universe/

Jeff Wall – His photographs seem to represent reality in a documentary fashion, but they are actually recreated compositions, mere stages using actors.

http://www.artdiscover.com/es/artistas/jeff-wall-id60 - His career and outstanding works.

http://www.discursovisual.net/dvweb37/TT_doring.html - Jeff Wall: photography from the end of modernity. Article by Arturo Rodríguez on the artist.

Group exhibition in Mexico - "Ficción y tiempo" 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XckKFj5EVAQ 

Cinema
We could discuss many films about fiction, beginning with the Méliès brothers. Here, however, we have highlighted 15 films: movies which are about cinema and the spectacle; films which mix reality and fiction; films which show the figures of their creators; films about dreamlike journeys, and other similar topics.

Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) – About fake documentaries
The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998)
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
El viaje de Chihiro (Hayao Miyazaki, Gimli Studio, 2001)
Hollywood Ending (Woody Allen, 2002)
Dogville (Lars Von Trier, 2003)
L’illusionnisie (Sylvain Chomet, 2010) – Animation film from a Jacques Tati script.
Hugo (Martin Scorsese, 2011) – Pitched between illusion, memory and fiction, this film is about the figure of George Méliès
Grand Hotel Budapest (Wes Anderson, 2014) – Watch how the film is staged
Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, 2014)
The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper, 2015)
Hail, Caesar! (Germans Coen, 2016)
About endlessness (Roy Anderson, 2019) – For its theatricality

Pedro Almodovar films, with its emphasis on the theatricality of the spaces: Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988), Volver (2006), Los abrazos rotos (2009), La piel que habito (2011)...

 

 

 

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