A selection of pieces from the Asturian Artists’ Archive
For Friedrich Ratzel, one of the pioneers of the academic implementation of the term “geopolitics” at the beginning of the 20th century, and also father of the war theory known as Lebensraum or vital space, “States have many of the characteristics of living organisms”. Therefore, “a state has to grow, expand or die within living borders which are, for this reason, dynamic and subject to change”, just like the human body. A statement, it would seem, which is not far removed from the Greek proverb “Man is the measure of all things”, which inspired the European exploration and conquest of the world during humanism: a problem of scale and measure which all modern states resolved through the government of life or death, the political battle for control and the productive organisation of subjects.
Among the presence of bodies and their premeditated absence, the videos making up this exhibition are placed. The eight pieces, signed by artists who are part of the Asturian Artists’ Archive at LABoral Centro de Arte, question the objectivity of the idea of scale by means of different representational strategies of landscapes, urban spaces, objects and forms which outline the cosmos. Its aim, as stated by Marcel Duchamp, is to endow the objects and forms around us with another life – subjectivity itself, that is, a value beyond its purpose and its everyday use; a value that transcends “man as the measure of all things”.
Curator: Alfredo Aracil
Artists: Cristina Busto, María Castellanos, Sara García, Marian Garrido, Paco Nadie, Lucía Rivero, Thr3hold, Román Torre
