"Why to Build a Museum on the Moon?" Round table at the Spanish Academy in Rome_

Jorge Conde will be presenting at the round table on "Art, Occupation and Utopia" to be held today at the Spanish Academy in Rome.

PARTICIPANTS:

Giorgio de Finis, anthropologist, curator and founder of MAAM (Rome).
Jorge Conde, visual artist in residence at the Spanish Academy in Rome (RAER). Author of "A World-Size House Project".
Julia Ramírez Blanco, Art historian in residence at the Spanish Academy in Rome (RAER).

EVENT: “Il Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove o Perché fare un museo sulla Luna?” / Why to Build a Museum on the Moon? Round table on "Art, Occupation and Utopia".

DATE: June 14th at 8:30 pm.

PLACE: Academia de España / Spanish Academy (RAER). Piazza di San Pietro in Montorio, 3 (Gianicolo), 00153 ROME

ITALIANO_

TAVOLA ROTONDA “Il Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove o Perché fare un museo sulla Luna?”

Dopo quattro anni di percorso, Giorgio de Finis, ideatore del Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove, ci accompagnerà nella cornice dell’Accademia per riflettere su come è cambiato e sulla direzione che ha preso ciò che viene definito il “primo museo abitato del pianeta”. Insieme a lui ci saranno Jorge Conde e Julia Ramírez, artisti residenti dell’Accademia di Spagna a Roma, che, sulla base dei propri studi e lavori realizzati quest’anno, parteciperanno alla tavola rotonda.

INTERVENTI:

Giorgio de Finis, antropologo, artista e curatore indipendente.

Jorge Conde, artista visivo residente alla Real Academia de España en Roma

Julia Ramírez Blanco, residente alla Real Academia de España en Roma.

Jorge Conde participates in "Open Studios" at the Spanish Academy in Rome_

Next Thursday March 17th OPEN STUDIOS will be held at the Accademia di Spagna In Rome (RAER).
This show is conceived as an opportunity for professionals from the contemporary art sector and other cultural initiatives to get familiar with some of the projects resident artists are being developing as part of their residency program (ARP) at the Spanish Academy.

PLACE: STUDIO 6 (Jorge Conde will be showing his work-in-progress project "A World-Size House")

DATE: March 17th,  2016

TIMES: 10am - 5pm for professionals; 5pm - 7pm for the general public.

The Mass-Man Project exhibited at Sala Fortuny in Reus (Spain)_

THE MASS-MAN PROJECT

Jorge Conde

"THE MASS-MAN PROJECT" explores the idea of agglomeration and its relation to mainstream consumerism in today's market societies from a triple perspective:

(1) Agglomeration as a performative form of dominion over public spaces.

(2) Agglomeration understood as an identity-building mechanism that serves the purpose of segmenting social groups according to their needs and affinities as part of a broader strategy promoted by today's so-called "artistic capitalism" (see Lipovetsky, Gilles & Serroy, Jean (2013): L'esthétisation du monde, Éditions Gallimard, Paris.)

(3) Agglomeration as a closed, stereotyped thought structure which aims at becoming dominant regardless of its truthfulness or critical sense.

Within this theoretical context, widespread phenomena such us the massification (sold-out) of public spaces, the artificial creation of market trends in order to attract different segments of society, and non-critical thought structures, can be regarded as utopian strategies that allow individuals to adjust reality so as to gain power and feel more comfortable and secure within their own biography as well as among their peers.

Methodologically, this projects finds inspiration in Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset's essay The Revolt of the Masses (1926-30), particularly in his concepts of the "Mass-Man" and the "Happy Many", both now updated.

For the exhibition at Sala FORTUNY three complementary, mutually enriching pieces have been selected: the installations Masses Do (It) Better and There's No Essential Difference, along with the video The Overcrowded Mind, all of them dated 2014.

Masses Do (It) Better, 2014. installation View

The overcrowded mind, 2014. Full HD Video

Jorge Conde's opening at Sala Fortuny in Reus_

"HIPERCONSUM"  

ATARÀXIA - Contra l'era de l'excés

Friday 12th of February - Friday 4th of March (2016) 

Sala Fortuny (Centre de Lectura). Carrer Major, 15. Reus (Spain)

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday 12 of February at 8 pm.

JORGE CONDE, LAURA CARRASCOSA, FANI PIZARRO, ÀNGEL POMEROL

"HIPERCONSUM" explores the idea of novelty and consumerism in today's market societies from a collective perspective. Excessive consumption often times is used as an alienating, relieving mechanism. It also serves as an instrument used by individuals in order to overcome peer pressure, be accepted in certain circles, and to exhibit socioeconomic status. Within this context, mass media function as an extremely powerful tool for the creation, communication and dissemination of needs.

Presentation of the book "Here & Now: Fraud", at Blanca Soto Gallery in Madrid_

"Here & Now: Fraud", a visual arts open call and digital book promoted by BLANCA SOTO Gallery in Madrid, in collaboration with AIR and curated by Imanol Marrodán.

Nearly 400 pages dedicated to contemporary thought and cutting-edge visual arts projects!

This publication includes a chapter entirely devoted to Jorge Conde's "The Mass-Man Project" (pages 53-73), an artistic investigation on massive events, crowds behavior, hiperconsumerism and show-business in contemporary Western societies. With this project, Jorge conde aims to visually elaborate on the main ideas stated by José Ortega y Gasset and Gilles Lipovetsky, two European philosophers from different schools and periods who reflected on how democracy and market society influence art and effectively shape our perception of the world.

Crowds Do Better, 2015 (fragmento). © Jorge Conde

Access the book "Here & Now: Fraud" (in Spanish)_

Event: "Here & Now 2015" exhibition opening and "Here & Now: Fraud" book presentation.
Date & Time: Wednesday December 2nd, 7 pm.
Venue: BLANCA SOTO Gallery. C/ Almaden, 13 - 28014 Madrid (Spain).

Jorge Conde, resident artist at the Reale Accademia di Spagna (RAER) in Rome, Italy_

As part of the institution's Artist Residency Program (ARP), Spanish artist Jorge Conde will create the project "A World-Size House" during the season 2015-2016, to be developed and exhibited at the Reale Accademia di Spagna in Rome (Italy).

Reale Academia di Spagna in Rome (RAER)'s Website_

Thanks to the MAEC-AECID Visual Arts Grant, awarded earlier this year, Jorge Conde will trace the contemporary cultural utopia and its current paradigms by exploring ten urban transformation projects with a clearly experimental, advanced aim, executed since the beginning of the XXI century in the Lazio region, primarily focusing on those located in the city of Rome.

"TST - Museum Findings", "The Scarred Transporter" video installation's fourth channel now finished_

TST - Museum Findings (2015). Video stills

Entirely shot in the London Film Museum, Museum Findings (2015)  is the forth and closing channel of "The Scarred Transporter" video installation. This highly complex video work is included in a work-in-progress, interdisciplinary investigation on consumerism as a form of utopian thinking and its impact on the environment/landscape. This project was launched in 2010 and first exhibited in PHotoEspaña (PHE’11), the photography and visual arts festival annually held in Madrid an Lisbon.

“The Scarred Transporter” project has been developed thanks to a production grant awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture (MECD) in 2013, and a Visual Arts grant awarded by the Catalan Government (CoNCA) in the same year.

Museum Findings (2015) ironically presents acceleration as a stereotypical attitude needed to experiment life to its full potential, a common place extensively used in contemporary societies, with myriad examples found in the movies, the show-business, publicity, politics, the mass media, and even in the most established cultural institutions worldwide.