Exhibitions
Vella Bellesa, Nova Mirada
Exhibition by Àlvar Calvet curated by Mercè Alsina
Arxiu d’Etnografia i Folklore de Catalunya
Carrer de les Egipcíaques, 15, 08001 Barcelona
From October 19 to November 26, 2023
Timetable
| All day (outside) |
The canons of beauty are closely linked to the social and cultural context, and it is the dominant ideologies of each era that have marked the models to be followed by reiterating the norm and imposing it. But, as Judith Butler observes, the very term that could annihilate us becomes a space of resistance, the possibility of effective social and political significance. In Vella bellesa, nova mirada“, Àlvar Calvet revises the concept of beauty by projecting disruptions to the established norm from dissident gazes to check the stereotype, since, as Roland Barthes said, to break the custom we must first break the stereotype, the abuse behind all rules, the chain that supposes every maximum.
In his projects, Calvet seeks to weaken the stereotype and introduce variants through interaction with audiences and also with the collaboration of minority and/or marginal groups. On this occasion, he focuses on the face to investigate new concepts, to explore alternatives, to propose other perspectives to those imposed from the canon. It proposes three people from different collectives to choose some portraits based on a set of images of faces from the past in different contexts, which are part of the Ethnographic Archive of Catalonia. An undocumented migrant, an incarcerated person and a trans person make the selection and argue it. In this argumentation, the reality and context that these people live have a lot of weight, bringing us closer to faces with whom they connect for different reasons, be they aesthetic, cultural, emotional or others. Its diverse reality confronts our context and makes us aware of our position in the social checkerboard. With this gesture, of a political nature, the artist highlights the oppressive system that monopolizes our gaze and makes us vulnerable. It is a gesture of resistance that shows us the condition of our colonized gaze.
Àlvar Calvet
Àlvar Calvet, from Tarragona, born in Tremp in 1965, graduated in Fine Arts from the UB, multidisciplinary artist with a pictorial and pedagogical perspective. His exhibition proposals begin with a concern about the role of the viewer, which will be followed by proposals focused on social contexts to give visibility to groups at risk of exclusion: trans people, sex workers, Schizophrenic patients or blind people have been references on which he has focused some of his work. Political and protest issues have also occupied part of his work, as in his last collective exhibition in Pamplona El triunfo del miedo. The defense of nature is part of his artistic credo, as in Volem lo riu viu in Manresa or in the Antic Forn de pa in Cellers that have allowed him to obtain the First Prize for Ephemeral Art XYZ in Amposta.
Mercè Alsina
Mercè Alsina (Barcelona, 1966) is a doctor in Art History, independent curator and journalist. It has a long history in the organization and management of cultural events and exhibitions. She has produced an extensive production of journalistic materials for the written press and television, as well as documentaries.
Among the research topics she has researched are the impact of globality on artistic productions and their circulation, questions of identity and historical representation, speculative materialism and the nature of objects, the video essay as a practice of resistance, among others. She has been a member of the Associació Catalana i Internacional de Crítics d’Art (ACCA i AICA) since 1990. Between 2003 and 2015 she was a member of the board of directors of the Catalan section as secretary. Since 2019 she has been an advisor and part of the programming team of the cinema, photography and new media festival Panoràmic (Barcelona/Granollers). Since 2017 she has been co-curator of the contemporary art cycle Santcorneliarts, in the Chapel of Sant Corneli, Museum of Cardedeu.
