Jorge Conde exhibits "Ten Desert Findings", a hybrid video, painting, drawing & photo installation, as part of the 2014 Contemporary Art Biennial exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art (MAMT) in Tarragona (Spain).
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Ten Desert Findings (2013-14) hybrid installation
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TST Desert Findings (9:56). Video stills
THE PROJECT_
<TST> is a work-in-progress project which aims to explore the idea of technological
utopia and how it affects the landscape and our behaviour as consumers. To
do so, I focus my research on motor vehicles of all versions and purposes. I
present the automobile as a source of endless emotions and experiences, a “scarred” machine which
incarnates the technological utopia of its time and confirms the supremacy of a
global socioeconomic model now in conflict. As it can be seen, I search
for shabby, useless, scrapped vehicles in order to highlight their built-in
obsolescence quality, a widely used strategy in contemporary market
economies which promises ephemeral well-being and serves the purpose of
creating new needs by constantly putting pressure on individuals and altering
the landscape.
<TST> is a collaborative, expanded
evolution of Everyday Impostor (2009-11), a photo-project
exhibited in PHotoEspaña (PHE’11), the International Photography and Visual
Arts Festival held in Madrid (Spain).
<TST> is a visual arts project created with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Culture (MECD) and with a grant awarded in 2013 by the Catalan Department of Culture (CoNCA).
THE INSTALLATION_
TST – Ten Desert Findings (2013) aims to reflect on technological utopianism and some abuses consumer
society commits on its behalf. To do so, I choose to employ a deceiving,
nearly preposterous strategy: several scale model vehicles were placed in
different spots of a vast desert landscape, where they seemed out of context or
could even be interpreted as an act of aggression towards nature. This video was
filmed in various locations of the “Bardenas Reales” of Navarre desert in
Northern Spain, the largest desert area in continental Europe and a widely used
setting for shooting automobile and technology commercials.
In addition, TST – Ten Desert Findings (2013) establishes a dialogue between the audiovisual experience and the
video’s making-of process. This is achieved by confronting the video itself with a
series of 10 photographs that were taken during the shooting. All texts
included in the photos refer to various concepts and stereotypes commonly used
by automobile companies in their ads.
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Opening: Friday 11th of July, 7:30 pm.
Venue: MAMT (Museum of Modern Art Modern) C/ Santa Anna, 8 - Tarragona (SPAIN).
Exhibition Dates: July 11th - September 1st 2014.