Fernando Sánchez Castillo’s workshop ‘THE GLOBAL MUSEUM OF CIVIL PROTEST’ for the students of the Art Academy of Latvia.
The workshop will be held on 15 - 16 october at the Art Academy of Latvia, within the support of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).
Fernando Sánchez Castillo's work centres around a critique of the symbolic dimension of monuments, disarticulating their agencies of power and representation. Sánchez Castillo has developed the critique of symbolic dimensions of monuments by taking away the power and the ability of displaying. Within his artworks Fernando encourages to review the history evidence and testimonies and to be aware of complexity of the history, its effect on our consciousness and to reveal the ways how the history is being formed by many dominant authorities.
Within the framework of the workshop, Fernando Sánchez Castillo invites participants to evaluate and rethink the political and abstract subjects - masks which have been used during the political protests in Latvia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Egypt and elsewhere. In order to pay more attention and to cover the face, thus avoiding face recognition, the protesters wear the masks or other visual attributes.
Fernando Sánchez Castillo has studied at Instituto de Estética Contemporánea, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris and enriched his artistic experience in the residency program of Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. His works are held in several public institutions including Centre Pompidou, Museo Reina Sofia, MUDAM Luxembourg and Museum Voorlinden.
Within the framework of the first Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA), his installation ‘Guernica Syndrome’ is on a display in the Sporta2 square until 28 October.
The Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) is an international biennial with a European focus and a strong regional profile. The inaugural edition will take place from the 2nd of June – 28th of October 2018, in several stunning venues in the city of Riga. Taking the rich history of Riga and the Baltic states as its underlying framework, the Biennial highlights the artistic landscape of the wider region (including all Baltic Sea region) and creates opportunities for artists to enter into dialogue with the cultural, historical and socio-political context of the city and its geographic surrounds.
Among more than 100 participants the biennial is honored to invite Spanish artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo with the work "Guernica Syndrome (2012/18)" with the support of AC/E.
With this work Fernando Sánchez Castillo explores an extremely charged relic of recent Spanish history that places the focus on events that have been forgotten or have not been dealt with. Franco’s yacht Azor was a symbol of power, and he held important political discussions on board. In 1985, a huge scandal ensued after Prime Minister Felipe González spent his summer vacation on the Azor. The state acquired it at an auction for a small price on the condition that it would be subsequently scrapped. However, the new owner attempted to market the boat as a tourist attraction and as an event venue. His enterprise was unsuccessful. The artist finally bought the contested boat in 2011 and had it dismantled to create a multipart sculpture consisting of more than forty blocks of metal, the boat’s mast, two benches, and additional individual parts that now take on an entirely different function. In this new form, Franco’s historically and emotionally charged yacht makes formal reference to Minimalism and its often-characteristic geometry and seriality. At the same time, Guernica Syndrome inquires into the strategies of dealing with the past as well as of the suppression and glorification of history. The Biennial is based on a working process that starts from the local, expanding to the national and the regional, and finally to the transnational. The Biennial aims to take root and make roots in the place where it is situated. Reflecting the biennial’s global outlook and mission to increase artistic engagement between the Baltic region and the rest of the world.
The Biennial has appointed Katerina Gregos as the chief curator of RIBOCA 2018. Katerina Gregos has chosen Sovej Helweg Ovesen as associate curator.The title of 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary art is "Everything was forever until it was no more". The 1st Riga Biennial will reflect on the phenomenon of change – how it is anticipated, experienced at this time of accelerated transitions.
1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary art open In several stunning venues in Riga, Latvia from 02.06.2018. – 28.10.2018. www.rigabiennial.com
