BAC!’08 Reveil-toi!
Group Show featuring Alexander Reyna
Run date: December 3rd 2008- January 31st 2009
Opening Reception: December 2nd, 2008 at 8pm
Location: Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona
Directions: Montalegre 5, Barcelona 08001
For additional information, a price list, hi-rez images, and/or an artist press kit, please contact us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
With BAC! ‘08 Reveil-toi!, the International Festival of Contemporary Art in Barcelona presents its ninth edition. The BAC! Festival 08 will be showing creators and theoreticians of different disciplines who are committed to looking for answers, ruptures or opening a breach for reflection, regarding the dimensions of the phenomenon of consumption, fashion, publicity... and its consequences in our society.
The mass media impose standards which are almost impossible to attain- the molds of perfect, handsome and famous celebrities. This success is presented to us as the only way of life and to obtain that happiness under preservative and strict patterns of conduct: to be the best ones without mattering how. The era of the image creates and stimulates to its potential consumers, inviting them to define themselves from characteristic urban groups or, rather, through determined commercial proposals.
To what extent does superficiality become the condition? To what extent can it enslave us? For the consumption system, it is imperative to continue to establish identifiable molds; that they end up creating the "ideal" archetypes of the urban society. The subliminal messages keep only for what it does not mean to say with clarity and the global communication brings us uniformity, annulling the differences between individuals. Society leads us to the false belief that success and extreme consumption are essential in life to achieve true happiness.
In the language of overlapping shapes and graphics, to the sound of a purring chorus of music, voices and electronic whispers, and muted newscasts, artist Alexander Reyna tells us our own story through his video. We see a portrait, painted in symbols to a shifting, hypnotic rhythm, of today’s surreal, modern environment. The piece is saturated with images of sex, war and chaos, softened by the interplay of bright colors cartoon-like scenery. It is hard not to find a disturbing sense of familiarity within these frames, and like any great work of art one discovers something new with each new viewing.
The festival will center its focus on this theme, thus defending an art of daily consequences, integrated with life of utilitarian form and with the social role of the new artist, who without a doubt, performs a determining role of presenting a new way to view the world. Reflection, regarding the meaning of the work of art as an object in the artistic Market, cultural activism, the art of guerrilla warfare. A way to rebel against this situation is to propose to those artists that they shoot their bullets against this wall of intolerance and unreal fantasy, constantly calling into question the established standards. It has already been some time since fashion took control of the aesthetic rebel. Now we must become those who take control of their own outlets of communication. It’s time for us to take control of what they do.
…Rebel-toi!
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about the artist: Alexander Reyna is inspired by the banal as much as he is by the profound. One 20th century argument about art’s relationship to contemporary culture proposes that ar stands at the forefront of culture and works against kitsch. His work deals explicitly with our relationship with mass media and corporate imagery.
about the festival: BAC! is an international for contemporary art that takes place annually in Barcelona, Spain. Photographers, designers, plastic artists, video artists, illustrators, musicians... conferences, workshops, fashion parades, Bakito (Bac kids)... will focus on this theme, defending the kind of art that has everyday consequences and is usefully integrated into life.
With BAC! ‘08 Reveil-toi!, the International Festival of Contemporary Art in Barcelona presents its ninth edition. The BAC! Festival 08 will be showing creators and theoreticians of different disciplines who are committed to looking for answers, ruptures or opening a breach for reflection, regarding the dimensions of the phenomenon of consumption, fashion, publicity... and its consequences in our society.
The mass media impose standards which are almost impossible to attain- the molds of perfect, handsome and famous celebrities. This success is presented to us as the only way of life and to obtain that happiness under preservative and strict patterns of conduct: to be the best ones without mattering how. The era of the image creates and stimulates to its potential consumers, inviting them to define themselves from characteristic urban groups or, rather, through determined commercial proposals.
To what extent does superficiality become the condition? To what extent can it enslave us? For the consumption system, it is imperative to continue to establish identifiable molds; that they end up creating the "ideal" archetypes of the urban society. The subliminal messages keep only for what it does not mean to say with clarity and the global communication brings us uniformity, annulling the differences between individuals. Society leads us to the false belief that success and extreme consumption are essential in life to achieve true happiness.
In the language of overlapping shapes and graphics, to the sound of a purring chorus of music, voices and electronic whispers, and muted newscasts, artist Alexander Reyna tells us our own story through his video. We see a portrait, painted in symbols to a shifting, hypnotic rhythm, of today’s surreal, modern environment. The piece is saturated with images of sex, war and chaos, softened by the interplay of bright colors cartoon-like scenery. It is hard not to find a disturbing sense of familiarity within these frames, and like any great work of art one discovers something new with each new viewing.
The festival will center its focus on this theme, thus defending an art of daily consequences, integrated with life of utilitarian form and with the social role of the new artist, who without a doubt, performs a determining role of presenting a new way to view the world. Reflection, regarding the meaning of the work of art as an object in the artistic Market, cultural activism, the art of guerrilla warfare. A way to rebel against this situation is to propose to those artists that they shoot their bullets against this wall of intolerance and unreal fantasy, constantly calling into question the established standards. It has already been some time since fashion took control of the aesthetic rebel. Now we must become those who take control of their own outlets of communication. It’s time for us to take control of what they do.
…Rebel-toi!
###
about the artist: Alexander Reyna is inspired by the banal as much as he is by the profound. One 20th century argument about art’s relationship to contemporary culture proposes that ar stands at the forefront of culture and works against kitsch. His work deals explicitly with our relationship with mass media and corporate imagery.
about the festival: BAC! is an international for contemporary art that takes place annually in Barcelona, Spain. Photographers, designers, plastic artists, video artists, illustrators, musicians... conferences, workshops, fashion parades, Bakito (Bac kids)... will focus on this theme, defending the kind of art that has everyday consequences and is usefully integrated into life.
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Alexander Reyna, Star [0690], 2007, 03-21-00 HD video with audio, 25-25 mg, DVD and HDDVD (Blue Ray) format. Video courtesy of {CTS}creativethriftshop