SIGN – Tentoonstellingsruimte voor Jonge Kunst
From 10th September to 9th October 2011
Winschoterkade 10 , 9711EA – Groningen. The Netherlands. Tlf 050-3132651
Open: Tue-Sat 12.00 – 17.00h + Sun 14.00 – 17.00h
Sign -tentoonstellingsruimte voor Hedendaagse Beeldende Kunst- is pleased to present First Circle, David Maroto’s first solo show devoted to this long-term project. After the Second Circle project (2005-06, which took place in TENT. Rotterdam, and W139 Amsterdam), David embarked in the development of its twin circle, which both precedes and is a continuation of it. First Circle is centered in the crossover between visual arts and literature -more concretely narratives, with a distinctive psychoanalytical approach. This is the first exhibition in which different works from First Circle have been gathered together. A selection that consists of the series Close-up Cut-outs, the installation Seven Masks, and the sound piece An Echo.
Close-up Cut-outs are a series of four large-sized prints that have been cut out by hand. They always depict a scene with two faces in the middle of a dialogue. The characters are made up of a collage of different faces. Their words, which are displayed in a text balloon, come also from adapted quotations that range from philosophical citations and poems to pop songs. As figures without a background, these pieces are a mixture between image, object and space. The architectural environment where they are displayed each time becomes their new, always changeable, background. Since many missing pixels within the images have been removed as well, it is possible to see the space through the cut-outs, which become in this way integrated into the spatial context.
Seven Masks is a long narrative sequence along which public walk with an accompanying sound track in a mp3 player with headphones. Unlike video and film, where pictures “move” while spectator’s body remains still, in Seven Masks the spectator is compelled to move in the space in order to introduce time within the visual material and, in so doing, activate its narrative elements. Also, unlike video and film, the soundtrack is not synchronized in forehand. It is up to the spectator to relate sound and images by walking at a faster pace, coming back and forth, and so on. This system opens up the work for spectator’s interpretation through their active participation.
An Echo reflects a situation through which any of us has been in any moment of our lives: when we hear from a friend an idea that we already said some time before and which was refuted by that very same friend back then. And now he is trying to convince us about his new ideas without remembering that we are the source where they come from.
David Maroto 