Crisis (2016-2019)
This project analyses from art and a historical perspective the relations between neoliberal global capitalism, colonialism and exclusion policies.
The works presented can be read in three lines. On one side the transition on sovereignty from the Nation-State to transnational institutions, on the other the modes of life management this capitalism in crisis that is shown in necropolitics, and last on how colonial projects can still be perceived today.
How to subvert a Galaxy? (2016)
Flag 100x70cm
A galaxy is defined as a bound system of stars and other elements that are gravitationally structured. These stars can be also organized in star or planetary systems, which are also gravitational structures but at a smaller scale. All these structures create categories and power relations based on fiscal parameters. If we look carefully at the EU flag we see it is formed by stars organized as a circle keeping the same distance from the centre, that should symbolize equality between member states and democracy. So, making an analogy with the Galaxy that operates with other parameters and categories, creating their own dependent systems, how can we subvert the structure? How to change the power relations, centres and systems? If the Copernican revolution meant a shift in the understanding of centres, how can we change the current system? Do we need centres?
PLUS ULTRA (2017)
Variable measures
Plus Ultra is the national motto of Spain meaning “further beyond”. Since 2006 the Spanish government signed several agreements with governments of countries of Africa, and started a special collaboration with Morocco for the control of the Spanish borders and the European ones within it. This externalization of border control has also been implemented by other countries, such as Italy and the most recent case has been the EU polemical agreement with Turkey. For practical purposes this means that the border control is extended further away than the geographical border, creating a space beyond the juridical control of the European Liberal “Democracies”. But Spain was not only the model for the border externalization; it was also a model for the construction of walls, playing an important role in the fabrication of the fences for other EU countries.
No nos Representan. Representation Critique from Colonialism to Catalonia. (2018)
Digital print (colour) on canvas
2 Diagramms: 80 x 200 cm and 80 x 140 cm
The purpose of this project is to propose a review, from an historical perspective, of the break and continuation of historical narratives from colonial history and capitalism, with its dispossession, to present neoliberal, global context and exclusion politics, focusing on the Spanish context. The title “No nos Representan” (They don’t represent us) refers to the main slogan on the 15-M / Indignados Protest, that took place in 2011, against austerity measures and corruption. Protesters established a critique on political representation by proposing more participative ways of organization on the square.
The protest produced a cultural change in Spanish society that allowed questioning historical narratives such as the transition process from dictatorship to democracy, the unity / plurality of the state, and colonialism and its role in the European context, bringing them to the public.
Once the protest dissolved, discomfort was canalized through institutional ways by the creation of Podemos, the start of the independence process in Catalonia and Municipal Unity Candidacies. This institutionalization process is also criticized as it reproduces some of the exclusion modes once criticized.
This project’s specificity is complemented by a global context, reflecting on concepts such as crisis and democracy, analyzing the different questions they try to answer and related historical forms and political traditions. It also reflects on ongoing exclusion related to neoliberal global capitalism and citizenship in its biopolitical forms and how the protest in Spain developed, as it relates to forms that appeared simultaneously during the Arab Spring, Occupy movement, Gezi Park, Umbrella Revolution, etc.
