Realidad_2. La ambigüedad como lenguaje

Paco Llobet / Xavier Olivé

19/04/74. (Sala 021)

In REALITY 2 nothing is what it seems

The postcard of the exhibition has a printed envelope, as if it were a letter.

THE PIANO

A spotlight illuminates the white grand piano and casts a shadow that is also painted on the floor. The real and the unreal. The piano is open waiting for someone to play the score.

THE TULIP

Resting on a shelf on the wall, the black and white photograph of a white tulip and, in front of it, a glass full of water. As the viewer moves, he sees how the stem of the flower produces a reverberation of the image as it is reflected in the water. It seems totally real.

THE TRUNK

On an old trunk prepared for a long journey, an exhaustive list of what it contains inside. The metalanguage.

THE BUTTERFLY BOX

In an entomology box the butterflies have been replaced by photocopies, cut out and pinned with pins.

THE TABLE

A photographic enlargement covers the top of a table, where a newspaper, a pencil, a pair of glasses, a book (where a dot on the page evokes the memories of Marcel Proust in Recherche when eating a madeleine) and a pack of cigarettes are reproduced in real size.

Above the photo a real glass filled with water, a pencil holder and an ashtray containing a photo of cigarette butts.

Hanging on the wall a second photograph of these real objects placed over the photographic enlargement, it is very difficult to distinguish the real from the unreal.

THE MODEL

Life-size portraits of a blonde top model, in the style of Leopoldo Pomés.

Next to it a bottle of l’Air du Temps by Nina Ricci. The photos are perfumed with this perfume, which is the one normally used by the model.

Also on display are false eyelashes and a life-size photograph of the dress used in the photo shoot.

In fact, the model is José Luis, a trans actor who performs in the Barcelona Cabaret de Noche.

THE MARBLE, THE EGG AND A PORTRAIT

The exhibition is complemented by other works:

A piece of marble next to marble imitations of other materials, linoleum, formica, etc.

The form/function theory is questioned with a real egg, a decorative marble egg and a wooden egg used for darning.

An artist from the Ramblas in Barcelona is given black and white photographic portraits of the authors of this exhibition to draw, the result is photographed again, obtaining an increasingly distorted image.