Espelhamentos, Reflexos, Desilusões

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Sometimes Always/Sometimes Never/Sometimes at the inaugural exhibition of Factoria Santiago de Compostela,
Spain Nov. 27 – Feb. 28 2010
Curator: Claudia Gianetti

Exhibition album

Sometimes Sometimes Always/Sometimes Never/Sometimes – Video + Images + Detailed Information

Exhibition folder

Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Delusions So Different, So Appealing?

Delusion, in the context of this exhibition, refers to an image or a deceitful representation of reality suggested by the imagination or a mistaken reading of the information provided by the senses. The show, which bears a title that parodies Richard Hamilton’s famous collage, addresses the notions and systems that underpin the construction of realities in today’s world, as well as exploring the possible idiosyncrasies of the digital age.

In this sense, the art of deception—which embraces both deceiving and allowing oneself, intentionally or unintentionally, to be deceived—appears as the idea that articulates the exhibition proposal. Despite being an abstract concept designed to organise sensitive experience, deception is to be found practically everywhere, appearing even as a biological (and in our case a cultural) imperative.

Several contemporary artists, particularly in the field of media art, have benefited from this fact. Simulation, for instance, with its strategy of producing realities, stands out as one of the most widespread and skilful resources in contemporary art. Artificially generated worlds are absolved of the need to follow the true models of universe and nature, creating their own notions of reality and authenticity.

The works that invoke delusion often resort to metaphorical and confabulatory practices (understanding the world in the Nietzschean sense of fable), surrounding viewers with the narrative thread and thereby making them an active part of the experience of the piece. In our case, realistic staging, fictitious documentation, the simulation of truths, the ambiguous quality of narratives are but some of the procedures adopted by artists in the works presented in this show.

Transdisciplinarity and multiplicity of techniques and media are other features defining the ensemble of works on display, following the guidelines of Factoría, while the selection, which includes Spanish and Latin American artists, endorses its proposal of establishing an effective and not just rhetorical relationship between artistic-cultural agents on either side of the Atlantic.