Cristina Lucas
11 Jul - 13 Oct 2013
CRISTINA LUCAS
ON AIR
11 July - 13 October 2013
With the collaboration of:
Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos CAB
UPV/EHU. Students from the Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences
In the exhibition On Air, CRISTINA LUCAS (Jaen, 1973) takes up the old dream of flying in order to ponder mechanisms of domination and power. Flying, observing the world from above and seeing how today’s new technologies make it possible to drop bombs on the other side of the planet without establishing the slightest emotional connection with the target constitute this work’s point of departure.
The idea is developed at different moments in the layout of the show: at the beginning, through the imaginary setting inhabited by several invented flying figures from all periods and cultures; then through the flight of the formula that enables the lifting of aircraft; and finally as their real destructive effects upon civilian population are shown in the main piece From the Sky Down.
This work is a special tribute “to the town of Gernika and the painting by Picasso”; as the artist says “it is a Gernika that contains all the other gernikas produced throughout the history of humanity”.
Cristina Lucas work revolves around instruments of social, political and cultural domination, and the restrictions that they impose. Religion, gender politics and the patriarchy are some of the subjects she has regularly examined.
Since remote times humans have looked upward with a yearning to cleave the skies. In the exhibition On Air, presented by Sala Rekalde after its showing at the CAB in Burgos, Cristina Lucas (Jaen, 1973) analyses the ancient dream of flying and the stark reality engendered in destructive processes set in motion by mechanisms of power.
The proposal is expressed in the form of a polyptych to illustrate the process that hoisted man into the air to then send him hurtling downwards into the inferno. It begins with the installation Sin título. Vuelan (2013), a compilation of characters from all times and cultures that human imagination endowed with the power to fly. From those conceived by literature and ancient myths, as in our Basque mythology with figures such as Mari, and the sorginak or galtzagorriak, to the most recent creations of cinema and comics.
Next is the video Piper Prometheus (2013) which reveals how this scientific advance was produced, it shows of a plane flying over Badalona with a sign displaying the famous written formula that measures the lifting capacity of aircraft. And from that dream come true, we nose dive to the show’s central installation, From the Sky Down (2013), which unfolds as a historical survey of all the bombings with civilian victims that the research team managed to document through the expurgation of great numbers of digital archives. The year 1912 marks the beginning of this study of atrocities, which in the future will take us to 2012. Divided into three headings, the first part narrates the period from 1912 to 1945 and concludes with the dropping of the two atomic bombs. The second will close with the end of the Cold War and the fall of the iron curtain in 1992. The world was already in colour but the colours were flat and the technology analogue. And the last is our super-technological time, the era of satellites and digital information, in which it appears that nothing has essentially changed: Syria is an example of this and a new witness to the continued existence of war conflicts.
In the exhibition at the CAB in Burgos it was only possible to see the first period of the trilogy, and this time, in Sala Rekalde, the story will evolve as far as the 1950s, when colour makes its arrival in the communications media. A new video work, Stardust (2013) will now also be incorporated, in which suspended dust particles appear, clearly referring to air and also perhaps to destruction.
Producing a cartography of this magnitude is an ambitious project full of difficulties. Although aware that there can never be a complete dating of the bombings that have taken place in all the world’s conflicts, Cristina Lucas has been working for some time with different teams that assist her in data gathering. To make the piece with the flyers, Sin Título. Vuelan, the collective Calipsofacto collaborated with her, and in the through research preparation needed for the main piece From the Sky Down, students on the "Communication and advertising: persuasive strategies" course at the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, run by Doctor in Audiovisual Communication Miren Gabantxo, intervened alongside the collective Trans[ito].
In Sala Rekalde, From the Sky Down unfolds on three synchronised screens showing, in animated form, bombings that have caused casualties among civilian populations since aviation was invented. Starting as a map without names, as the bombings succeed one another, the names of the towns and cities are established and, as time goes by, they pile up and the war scars can be appreciated in black.
As the artist explains, “in this cartography of the history of infamy we understand right away that there are no Goodies and Baddies. There are simply peoples that are more powerful than others. We also rapidly realise that there is no inter-war period. The world is permanently at war, it’s just that it’s not always going on in Europe. I don’t try to moralise about whether war is or isn’t good, but I do seek to show that civilians become targets and that technology has its dark side”.
Cristina Lucas’ work expresses a constant interest in cartography as a way of uncovering what is concealed and making power relations visible in all their forms, as well as their impact on the individual. In 2007 she made the cartography Pantone, a video in which she animates the construction of nations from the year 500 BCE to 2007, and in 2010 she produced Europa Económica Popular / Popular Economic Europe, a political map of the world showing different ways of naming money in popular slang.
THE ARTIST
Cristina Lucas (Jaén, 1973) lives and works between Madrid and Amsterdam. She studied Fine Arts at the Complutense University in Madrid and was awarded a Master’s degree from the University of California in Irvine. She was in residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and was initially drawn by actions and happenings, though she soon became involved in the use of photography, video, drawing and installations.
A multimedia artist with an important international profile, in 2008 Cristina participated in the Sao Paulo Biennial and in the 10th Liverpool Biennial. During her career she has exhibited internationally on a good number of occasions and her work is present in the collections of prestigious public institutions including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, KIASMA in Helsinki, MUSAC in Leon, IVAM in Valencia, Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, ARTIUM in Vitoria and the MNAC Foundation in Cadiz. In 2012 she exhibited her works at the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery in Madrid and in the MAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago de Chile, and in 2011 she showed at the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico.
She is currently one of the artists taking part in the exhibition Exuberant Baroque in the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.
ON AIR
11 July - 13 October 2013
With the collaboration of:
Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos CAB
UPV/EHU. Students from the Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences
In the exhibition On Air, CRISTINA LUCAS (Jaen, 1973) takes up the old dream of flying in order to ponder mechanisms of domination and power. Flying, observing the world from above and seeing how today’s new technologies make it possible to drop bombs on the other side of the planet without establishing the slightest emotional connection with the target constitute this work’s point of departure.
The idea is developed at different moments in the layout of the show: at the beginning, through the imaginary setting inhabited by several invented flying figures from all periods and cultures; then through the flight of the formula that enables the lifting of aircraft; and finally as their real destructive effects upon civilian population are shown in the main piece From the Sky Down.
This work is a special tribute “to the town of Gernika and the painting by Picasso”; as the artist says “it is a Gernika that contains all the other gernikas produced throughout the history of humanity”.
Cristina Lucas work revolves around instruments of social, political and cultural domination, and the restrictions that they impose. Religion, gender politics and the patriarchy are some of the subjects she has regularly examined.
Since remote times humans have looked upward with a yearning to cleave the skies. In the exhibition On Air, presented by Sala Rekalde after its showing at the CAB in Burgos, Cristina Lucas (Jaen, 1973) analyses the ancient dream of flying and the stark reality engendered in destructive processes set in motion by mechanisms of power.
The proposal is expressed in the form of a polyptych to illustrate the process that hoisted man into the air to then send him hurtling downwards into the inferno. It begins with the installation Sin título. Vuelan (2013), a compilation of characters from all times and cultures that human imagination endowed with the power to fly. From those conceived by literature and ancient myths, as in our Basque mythology with figures such as Mari, and the sorginak or galtzagorriak, to the most recent creations of cinema and comics.
Next is the video Piper Prometheus (2013) which reveals how this scientific advance was produced, it shows of a plane flying over Badalona with a sign displaying the famous written formula that measures the lifting capacity of aircraft. And from that dream come true, we nose dive to the show’s central installation, From the Sky Down (2013), which unfolds as a historical survey of all the bombings with civilian victims that the research team managed to document through the expurgation of great numbers of digital archives. The year 1912 marks the beginning of this study of atrocities, which in the future will take us to 2012. Divided into three headings, the first part narrates the period from 1912 to 1945 and concludes with the dropping of the two atomic bombs. The second will close with the end of the Cold War and the fall of the iron curtain in 1992. The world was already in colour but the colours were flat and the technology analogue. And the last is our super-technological time, the era of satellites and digital information, in which it appears that nothing has essentially changed: Syria is an example of this and a new witness to the continued existence of war conflicts.
In the exhibition at the CAB in Burgos it was only possible to see the first period of the trilogy, and this time, in Sala Rekalde, the story will evolve as far as the 1950s, when colour makes its arrival in the communications media. A new video work, Stardust (2013) will now also be incorporated, in which suspended dust particles appear, clearly referring to air and also perhaps to destruction.
Producing a cartography of this magnitude is an ambitious project full of difficulties. Although aware that there can never be a complete dating of the bombings that have taken place in all the world’s conflicts, Cristina Lucas has been working for some time with different teams that assist her in data gathering. To make the piece with the flyers, Sin Título. Vuelan, the collective Calipsofacto collaborated with her, and in the through research preparation needed for the main piece From the Sky Down, students on the "Communication and advertising: persuasive strategies" course at the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, run by Doctor in Audiovisual Communication Miren Gabantxo, intervened alongside the collective Trans[ito].
In Sala Rekalde, From the Sky Down unfolds on three synchronised screens showing, in animated form, bombings that have caused casualties among civilian populations since aviation was invented. Starting as a map without names, as the bombings succeed one another, the names of the towns and cities are established and, as time goes by, they pile up and the war scars can be appreciated in black.
As the artist explains, “in this cartography of the history of infamy we understand right away that there are no Goodies and Baddies. There are simply peoples that are more powerful than others. We also rapidly realise that there is no inter-war period. The world is permanently at war, it’s just that it’s not always going on in Europe. I don’t try to moralise about whether war is or isn’t good, but I do seek to show that civilians become targets and that technology has its dark side”.
Cristina Lucas’ work expresses a constant interest in cartography as a way of uncovering what is concealed and making power relations visible in all their forms, as well as their impact on the individual. In 2007 she made the cartography Pantone, a video in which she animates the construction of nations from the year 500 BCE to 2007, and in 2010 she produced Europa Económica Popular / Popular Economic Europe, a political map of the world showing different ways of naming money in popular slang.
THE ARTIST
Cristina Lucas (Jaén, 1973) lives and works between Madrid and Amsterdam. She studied Fine Arts at the Complutense University in Madrid and was awarded a Master’s degree from the University of California in Irvine. She was in residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and was initially drawn by actions and happenings, though she soon became involved in the use of photography, video, drawing and installations.
A multimedia artist with an important international profile, in 2008 Cristina participated in the Sao Paulo Biennial and in the 10th Liverpool Biennial. During her career she has exhibited internationally on a good number of occasions and her work is present in the collections of prestigious public institutions including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, KIASMA in Helsinki, MUSAC in Leon, IVAM in Valencia, Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, ARTIUM in Vitoria and the MNAC Foundation in Cadiz. In 2012 she exhibited her works at the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery in Madrid and in the MAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago de Chile, and in 2011 she showed at the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico.
She is currently one of the artists taking part in the exhibition Exuberant Baroque in the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.