Following the extensive, anthological exhibition held at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid last February, the Spanish artist will present in Naples and in Rome new works where the acts of cleaning and erasing are again a central issue.
Her new performance Dependencia mutua renovates once more her statement on power relationships trough objects and our dependance upon them. This time she's not in action but rather behind the camera.
The artist asked a cleaning lady from the Ukraine to dust a statue of a Roman Emperor. The video was recorded at the Archaeological Museum in Naples where the large, marble statue of the Emperor Claudius represents not only a treasure from the past but a burden to the changing present on Italian culture. As she touches and cleans the masculine figure in a dominating position, the woman defies the intangible and obscure dimensions ofsymbols of power.
Through this metaphoric action, the artist questions the relationship between hegemonic and subordinate roles. She wonders if the contraposition between powerful and subordinate – between masculine and feminine – is present in our psyche at an unconscious level and reflects upon the relationship of reciprocal dependence according to which every role requires another in order to justify its very existence.
Her well-known flying objects, projections of objects reflected by rotating mirrors, will be installed in both venues. At the gallery in Rome, a hand, intent upon cleaning, moves freely along the walls of the gallery reflected by a rotating mirror. The exhibit space becomes a screen, and, in turn, a container; with this ironic gesture, the art gallery already filled with objects becomes the object on exhibit. Flying mirrors have become individual pieces, designed like intruders in a domestic environment.
Printed images and text on packages of consumer products have been manually erased as to reestablish our relationship with the object. Envases borrados show a testimonial practice that might help us to deconstruct our identity as consumers, tied to the old idea of subjectivity and uniqueness. Objects don't exist any more but products in a designed world. Using such humble action she posts a critical statement on the project of Modernity.
Eulalia Valldosera was born in 1963 in Barcelona where she lives and works. She has exhibited her works in important galleries and museums the world over, including the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Museé d'Art Contemporain in Montreal, and the PS1 in New York. She has participated in the 2009 Lyon Biennial, the 2004 Sao Paulo Biennial, the 2001 Venice Biennial, the 1996 Sydney Biennal, the 1997 Biennials of Johannesburg and Istanbul, and the Skulptur Projeckts in Münster in 1997.
With the kindly support of Real Academia de España and Soprintendenza speciale per i beni archeologici di Napoli e Pompei.
NAPLES, Wednesday, 9 December, 2009
Limpieza
ROME, Friday 11 December, 2009
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until 28 February, 2010
