"Detailed aesthetic expositions tell us little about this, as they prefer to focus on the beautiful, the grandiose, and the attractive, that is, on feelings of a positive tone, their conditions of appearance, and the objects that arouse them, while disdaining reference to or contrary, repulsive, and unpleasant feelings."
Sigmund Freud - The Uncanny (1919).

Subjected to the aesthetics of pleasure and inhabited by the culture of postmodernism that blindly obeys the "Like" visible on the device of social networks, it was unthinkable in the initial conversations with the collective of artists to develop a possible format that would attract a large audience in this ruinous setting.

The signifier "ruin" refers—in its etymology—to the act of falling; it names something that the passage of time has left in poor condition, that has been spoiled. This dimension of loss served as the driving force behind the desire for the conception of this project. Ruin and decay thus serve as the reverse of the artificial ideals of success proposed by the legitimizing circuits of art.

For its part, the omnipresence of the threat of demolition—always imminent, given the lack of a final date—pulsed latently as something unspoken and therefore disturbing. Thus establishing the logic of the ephemeral (this being the quintessential characteristic of our era), an artist cannot ignore this, as they themselves are an effect of their context, within which artistic practices are embedded.

Along with this logic, the lines of work gradually evolved into decisions that, for some, consisted of creating a site-specific work, and for others, the selection of works that make sense in the uniqueness of this space, facilitating a possible dialogue. Being positioned in the scene as inhabitants temporarily circulating through this house on the verge of collapse generated an effect of strangeness in the artists, who subtly began to name a space where they could display their work as their own; this speaks to a movement
subjective to appropriate that which was given to them as foreign.

Supporting the exhibition's installation through actions functioned as a "ritual" that invited the elaboration of a mourning process by enabling a time of transition between the old and the new. That is, in a clear direction, the old falling, collapsing to accommodate the new construction project to come. Enrolling in a project that borders on the aesthetics of displeasure, of the sinister, implied placing a bet on the symbolic: a bet on the desire that is renewed every time the subject is faced with the possibility of losing something. Evidence of this are the bare walls—without a veil—peeled and rough, covered in the weave of mold, the cobwebs climbing the lamps, the reality of the exposed brickwork forming a texture in itself. The uninhabited, gloomy rooms dripping with damp and filled with a few objects echo a bygone everyday life, revealing a faint vestige of vitality: dusty shelves, religious imagery hanging on the walls, transparent curtains, and furniture from another era. An inventory of objects that act as specters, permeating every room the viewer passes through, thus inaugurating a time to redefine this space.

The statement of the proposed creative process relates a task of excavation in the sense of exploring the decadence that inhabits us while making reference to the emergence of desire (desire to do) that takes on
visibility in the decision of this group of artists to get down to business, capturing a moment in the face of imminent collapse.

 

 

Paola Calcerano