Soft Focus, followed by Valor Facial. Asier Mendizabal

In Soft Focus, seguido de Valor Facial, Asier Mendizabal will read out two different texts one after the other, setting up linkages between one initially independent text and the other, and between these and the work Das unbekannte Spanien/España tipos y trajes in the EL CONTRATO exhibition. The work, a double slide projection in the AlhóndigaBilbao Exhibition Hall, juxtaposes two separate ideas of the representation of collective identity through landscape and a certain idea of folk culture. Similarly, the juxtaposition of the two readings intends to set up a different way of looking at the creation and consolidation of cultural representations through ethnographic photography, landscape painting and portraits of prominent characters on banknotes.

This lecture is part of the programme of activities for EL CONTRATO, a collaborative project between Bulegoa z/b and AlhóndigaBilbao running between 2 October 2014 and 11 January 2015. Soft Focus seguido de Valor Facial will take place in the AlhóndigaBilbao exhibition space.

More information: www.alhondigabilbao.com

Asier Mendizabal (Ordizia, 1973) is an artist and lives in Bilbao. His work pays attention to the relations between form, discourse and ideology. He has had individual shows in Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen (2013); Raven Row, London (2011); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2011); Culturgest, Lisbon (2009). Group exhibitions include 31st São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2014); A Singular Form, Secession, Vienna (2014); Scenarios about Europe, GZK, Leipzig and San Telmo Museoa, Donostia-San Sebastián (2013); Illuminations, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice (2011).