C106
review
Lisbon: Veneer/Folheado
at Zé dos Bois
The renovated
Zé dos Bois gallery in Lisbon, together with Belfast's
Catalyst Arts, has put together Veneer I Folheado,
an exchange between Lisbon and Belfast.
More than
a single exhibition (it includes two group shows, public
art, music, films and football) the project, informed
by contemporary Anglo-American cultural studies, tries
to develop a sociological perspective on two capitals
which do not have much in common beside being port cities
with a vast historical background of political disturbance.
The presupposition
behind such undertakings has been well known for some
time: since the '90s issues of memory, historical trauma
and temporality have emerged as key to understanding our
cultural and political present. From public to private
memory, from the social to the personal archive, many
artists are working with growing awareness of the history
that lies behind them, creating micronarratives which
have replaced the great projects of the past. Their output
replaces the classical notion of an artwork with the idea
of practice, of process, of participation, of the critical
exploration of the clash between the individual, locally
based and the globalized and imposed.
Read as such,
the Veneer I Folheado enterprise fails in (almost)
every aspect, except for the role of ZDB as producer.
But, let's
go back to the show, which is part of a wider programme.
It is described by one of it curators as an attempt to
"act as an honest and positive ambassador for Northern
Ireland, a country overexposed in the world of media and
consequently stereotyped as a troubled, battered and dangerous
land." The general impression we get is that of a highly
depressed and historically repressed society, despite
all attempts to be positive. Reinforcing this idea, even
the most interesting works do not escape reflecting a
lost society looking for a new identity post-'Troubles',
Troubles which fixed that society as a divided community.
Miriam
de Búrca: Dogs have no religion,
installation shot; photo Carlos Cristovão;
courtesy Zé dos Bois
|
Exemplifying
this we have the videos Dogs have no religion by
Miriam de Búrca and Holylands by Seamus
Harahan. The first presents a survey of the Irish condition
through the direct speech of three men who describe what
it is like to be a man in Belfast in a present overshadowed
by political divisions and religious conservatism. The
second is a subjective documentary on the inner life of
the Holyland (a region of Belfast), once again a portrait
of a society divided between permanent inhabitants and
the rotating student community, often a source of tension
and disjunction in the way they relate with the city.
This impression is amplified in Veneer by Robin
Carson, a video less interesting than the previous two;
it is too literal and tautological on the bipolar urbanism
of Belfast. Literal also is the second work shown in Lisbon
by the same artist: Transient, a series of tiles
painted in collaboration with the Portuguese community
in Dungannon, which tries to report the difficulties inherent
in the integration of 'strangers' in a 'transcultural'
Europe. Political statements by community members operate
here in a naïve and visually poor manner; we already have
more useful examples from K.O.S. or in some proposals
by Mary Jane Jacobs on community involvement and public
art.
Robin
Carson: Veneer; installation shot; photo
Carlos Cristovão; courtesy Catalyst Arts/Zé
dos Bois
|
In this respect,
a mention must be made of Paddy Bloomer and Nicholas Keogh,
devotees of the dérive and détournement
within urban 'situations', with their body of work mainly
developed in inhospitable locations. The effectiveness
of their work is directly related with its own failure.
The intervention they undertook together was in a sewer
next to ZDB. It acted as an attraction for casual audiences
during the opening, but it led a more 'conscientious'
citizen, in the present times of terrorist phobia, to
call in the fire department, who in the end removed the
generator the artists were using. It shows there's life
after death for some art projects.
A special
remark is owed to the musical selection, which was attentive
to the international scene and was finely selected amongst
the most contemporary currents of electro- and (new) no-wave
rock. First we had the opening concert by the Olympic
Lifts (from Belfast) and then the first release by the
producer ZDBmüzique of the Loosers LP. The Loosers also
took part in Veneer I Folheado, in 7'
vinyl, curated by John Mathews (with sleeve
design by Duncan Ross, who also participated in the show
in a very discreet way).
The show,
too dated, worn out by the critical fashion of the '90s,
and with varying levels of final quality, doesn't achieve
critical mass. Kudos for the show is due to ZDB for operating
as interface or platform for this kind of undertaking.
Lack of resources, but a strong commitment and diplomacy
get you there... Let us wait for the second part of the
programme, now in Northern Ireland
Hernani
Marcelino
Veneer/Folheado:
Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, September/October, 2003; facilitated
by Dosensos, London
