Inside Joke

Diablo Rosso and Proyectos Ultravioleta
presents:

Panama City, Panama

A confession:

We are already tired of being told that “that of contemporary art is like a long series of jokes among a small group of friends”.

A revelation:

Indeed, contemporary art is sometimes very serious and sometimes it is a joke.

A recommendation:

Instead of complaining, relax a bit, join the recital of jokes and count yours.

Six examples:

1. Upon realizing all the paint that was spilled on the floor of his studio while he was painting, Federico Herrero covered them with white linoleum to protect him. Soon he noticed that the paint residues that fell on it, at random, were just as interesting as those he intentionally placed on his canvases. What did? He cut the linoleum from the floor and presented it as a work in the next exhibition in which he was invited to participate.

2. After receiving the invitation of Pablo León de la Barra and Radamés “Juni” Figueroa to participate in the 1st Great Tropical Biennial, Jesús ‘Bubu’ Negrón went to Piñones Beach in search of inspiration. While sunbathing, street vendors were passing through, offering hand-made masks made of dried coconuts. Without thinking twice, he bought some masks and installed them high up among the coconuts of the palms of the same beach where the 1st Great Tropical Biennial was held, and with that gesture he was the winner of the Pineapple of Gold – awarded to the best work of the Biennial.

3. Proyectos Ultravioleta invites Jonathan Harker to make a work for an exhibition that explores the relationship between the United Kingdom and Latin America, to be held in a London commercial gallery. That same week, while changing channels on the television, Harker runs into the James Bond broadcast: Quantum of Solace. At that moment he has an epiphany: instead of creating a work from scratch for the exhibition, he decides to do a re-edition of the Hollywood film in which he shows only the scenes shot at the Grand Andean Hotel in Bolivia (actually, the National Institute of Culture in Panama) where the protagonists of the film are kindly received by the hotel receptionist, who in reality is Emiliano Valdés, one of the members of Proyectos Ultravioleta.

4. After moving to a new apartment, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa saw the need to acclimate it. I wanted to fill it with plants but I did not have pots to place them. One day, while walking to his new home, he came across a pair of used shoes that he soon turned into flowerpots. Soon after, he filled his house with all kinds of plants in all kinds of pots, from shoes to deflated soccer balls. Months later, he was invited to participate in a collective show and alás, the tropical ready-made emerged.

5. Walking through the streets of Medellín, Stefan Benchoam and Byron Mármol came across a very nice park full of very ugly sculptures by Fernando Botero. Noting the corporal similarities of Marmol and the monumental sculptures of Botero, Benchoam convinced him to let himself be portrayed with one of them. Entered in heat, Marmol took off his shirt, climbed on a reclining woman and posed for Benchoam’s camera. They uploaded the photo to facebook and soon it became a viral sensation. Six months later, they were invited to participate in ZONAMACO (the contemporary art fair in Mexico) and presented the photo as “art” for the first time. Marmol’s photo of Botero’s sculpture was one of the most talked-about pieces of the fair.

6. For a long time, Yoshua Okón’s mascot was an Aztec Mexican dog of the “Xoloitzcuintle” breed. One day, he had the idea of ​​portraying his dog next to a bitch of breed “French Poodle Toy”, to contrast their differences. He located a very strawberry lady, with a dog that was just as strawberry as her, and convinced her to lend it for a few hours to make a photo session. It was for the dog, he took her to his study, and while they were setting both dogs, left the room to answer a phone call. When he returned, he was surprised to find his dog Xoloitzcuintle perched on the French Poodle. Without hesitating for a moment, Okón reached a digital video camera and recorded a small video of that unlikely scene, which would soon become one of the most iconic works of the beginning of his career.

Moral moral:

Or you keep complaining and have a bad time, or join the conversation and contribute your ideas … and of course the ideal would be to follow the example of John Baldessari and avoid doing boring art.