Contra-informaciones
13.01 – 17.02.24
Contra-informaciones is Fernando Sánchez Castillo’s second exhibition at Albarrán Bourdais and the first at the Barquillo 13 space.
Based on the concepts of text, fabrics, and the term “counter-information” coined by Gilles Deleuze, the artist develops a series of subtly interwoven pieces that have been made specifically for the space.
With the piece “Choreography 01”, we can observe a formal study of the opposition of a large white canvas against the wind. The 14 x 22.22 m make it a span larger than the national flag in the Plaza de Colón. Like a sterile sail, but hypnotic in its fluttering, it constitutes the first action of this singular performative object.
The blows and movement are recorded and frozen in the same way in the installation “Hall of Mirrors” where the pigment “black Mars” is violently and systematically imprinted on the canvases on the walls of the gallery, classic supports of Western painting. A series of black paintings as if they were murals. A rereading and rewriting of formalisms using the tools of coercion used in moments of social breakdown (rubber balls, towels, belts, etc.).
Based on texts and research by Antonio Palomino and William Jordan, the artist recreates his version of Velázquez’s “The Expulsion of the Moors”. Burned in the 1734 fire at the Alcázar Real in Madrid, only a few descriptions and a sketch of the recently found portrait of Philip III remain. Its protagonists live among us as ghosts of Velazquez’s imaginary.
Finally, a constellation of fleeting images deified through drawings and sculptures.Fragments that constitute the imaginary archive of Sánchez Castillo, offering clues to his relationships with processes and artists of previous generations. A process of dialogue that will be open and will continue to grow and evolve during the time of the exhibition.
“In order to paint it’s also important to invent the tool and let the hands and the body speak. It wouldn’t be possible to tell this story with brushes alone” – Fernando Sánchez Castillo.