 | Luca Frei, Strength #1 (banner), 2013. Photo © Simon Vogel. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Wien Lukatsch. | | | | EL CONTRATO (THE CONTRACT) | | | "That we shall know with whom we have to do, is the first precondition of having anything to do with another." This statement by Georg Simmel inspires the following questions: What does a contract commit us to? What rights does it give us, and what liabilities? What is the relationship between valid, legitimised contracts and the other tacit agreements that govern them, based on unwritten or invisible affective relationships? Can the terms of these contracts and agreements be revised? And, finally, can we imagine new models of contracts that correspond to the aspirations and desires that drive our practices?
EL CONTRATO (THE CONTRACT) is a two-year project developed by Bulegoa z/b in collaboration with AlhóndigaBilbao. The project has two phases: a reading group developed during 2013 and an exhibition in autumn 2014. The exhibition is articulated around the themes examined in the reading group, and comprises works by around 30 artists, as well as a film programme, talks, performances, and a new reading group. EL CONTRATO aims to enquire into the ways in which generally accepted, tacit agreements condition practices and ways of making, doing, being and acting.
The basic aim of EL CONTRATO is to enquire into the ways in which generally accepted agreements from modernity to today have conditioned the evolution of certain practices within the humanities such as art, history or social theory. The question is whether it is possible to negotiate such established accords without falling into the indifference so often associated with consensus; and if the need for the social pact can be critically considered without forcing an agreement between different agents.
The starting point of the EL CONTRATO reading sessions was the revision of the four areas that reflect the practices that anchor Bulegoa z/b's general project as an office of art and knowledge: sociology, curatorship, criticism and choreography. The reading group shared different documents: essays, historical texts, legal acts, conferences, poems, prose, film reviews, news, interviews, films, audio recordings. Members read aloud, debated and did exercises in collective writing.
The exhibition EL CONTRATO is comprised of 12 parts—reflecting the number of reading sessions—resulting from group discussions: the staging of the social contract, the contract between bodies, the contract in forms of production, the contract as dispositif, dismantling the contract, contracts between theory and practice, declassifying the contract, written and spoken contracts, pedagogical contracts, the performativity of the contract, the archive as contract, and the contract with thought.
The exhibition sets up a dialogue between different art media—painting, film, sculpture, photography, poetry, sound, theatre and dance—and accepted protocols in exhibition and performing arts spaces, questioning them or possibly reaffirming them.
Participants in the show: Eulalia Abaitua, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Agency, Elena Aitzkoa, Malús Arbide, BADco, Ricardo Basbaum, Josu Bilbao, Kajsa Dahlberg, Jon Mikel Euba, Luca Frei, EL CONTRATO reading group, Arne Hendriks, Joost Janmaat and Jasper van den Berg (Academy of Work), Iñaki Imaz, Jeleton, Teresa Lanceta, Karl Larsson, Arantxa Martínez, Asier Mendizabal, Adriana Monti, Rabih Mroué, Anxela Caramés, Carme Nogueira and Uqui Permui (Contenedor de feminismos), Itziar Okariz, Catarina Simão, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Gertrude Stein, Teatro Ojo, Wendelien van Oldenborgh
This exhibition is curated by Bulegoa Zenbaki Barik. Works in the exhibition are brought together in a structure designed by artist Luca Frei.
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New York City, 10002 USA | | | | |
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