FONS ÀUDIO #23
Oriol Vilanova
Much of the work produced by the artist Oriol Vilanova (Barcelona, 1980) revolves around the juxtaposition of antithetical concepts: copy and original, memory and oblivion, collecting and iconoclasm, images and their disappearance.
He is not just interested in the symbolic power and aesthetic and semantic potential of these antitheses, but also in using them as a strategy for exploring in-between spaces: the intervals or what he calls ‘crossings’ between these opposing ideas. His artistic practice emerged from ‘crossings’ of his own, from flea markets to the studio, from an architecture degree to art (first as a spectator and later as producer).
The three works by Oriol Vilanova that form part of the MACBA Collection are a good illustration of some of the recurring ideas in his work. The artist uses repetition – a modus operandi that is present in the two collections of postcards, ‘Forjadores de Imperio’ (Forgers of Empire) and ‘Còpies’ (Copies), but also in the multiplicity of wooden panels and spaces in ‘John’ – as a means to reflect on a series of key themes that turn up in other work produced in the course of his career.
Re-readings of material acquired in second-hand markets are often a springboard for exploring the actual practice of collecting and classifying, or the functionality of urban architecture; for reviewing the malleable nature of history; for rethinking the exhibition space by means of structures that force the audience to interact directly with the artwork; and for drawing the spectator’s attention to the importance of archives in today’s artistic ecosystem, both as a historical record and as a source of new narratives.
More FONS AUDIO:
FONS AUDIO #22. Xavier Ribas
FONS AUDIO #21. Eric Baudelaire
FONS AUDIO #20. Sandra Balsell
FONS AUDIO #19. Eulàlia Grau
FONS AUDIO #18. Erick Beltrán
FONS AUDIO #17. Judith Barry
FONS AUDIO #16. Perejaume
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with artist Francesc Torres that we were unable to include the first time around.
Francesc Torres
Francesc Torres (Barcelona, 1948) is an artist, essayist, poet, collector, and curator, who has been involved with conceptual art since the late sixties. He has been a pioneering figure in the use of installation as an artistic and narrative device with which to explore the possibilities of the exhibition space, the artistic object, and the interactions that take place between the audience and the art work. Historical memory, understood as a political category, is an another element that runs through his work. In FONS AUDIO #37 Francesc Torres talks about some of his works in the MACBA Collection as he looks back over his years in Paris working with Piotr Kowalski and his early performances in the United States. He also reflects on the aesthetic-political characteristics of installations, on historical memory, collecting, and the role of museums.
Antoni Abad
Antoni Abad charts a course that begins with his early sculptural works and ends with his current community-based mobile communication projects, by way of his video installations and net.art.
Bartomeu Marí about "Gil J Wolman. I am immortal and alive"
This is an email conversation with the sound poetry and voice collector Eduard Escoffet, which took place in Summer 2013.
Although Gil J Wolman's seminal sound work has been largely overlooked, it was a precursor of sound poetry and is one of the key elements of Lettrist poetry. This radio show reconstructs the link between Lettrism, sound poetry, and the work of some isolated but fundamental figures.
In this sound piece, Oriol Vilanova recites, one after another and in no particular order, the more than one thousand names of the cities featured in his postcard collection of triumphal arches 'Còpies', one of his works in the MACBA Collection.
Francesc Torres
Interview with Francesc Torres, on his exhibition Da capo at MACBA.