Page 80 - PICE_ENG2014

Avelino Sala‘Art can’t change the world, but it can some things’FERNANDO DÍAZ DE QUIJANO El Cultural 30/01/2014Allegorically and openly critical, the work of Avelino Sala (Gijón, 1972) has always been very close to current socio-political affairs. For a few days the visual artist interrupted his two- month residency in New York to present Locked-in Syndrome at the Ponce+Robles gallery in Madrid with the support of Acción Cultural Española’s Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE). The title of the exhibition refers to this syndrome as a metaphor of citizens’ incapacity to react to the constant social, political and economic changes of the present age.Question. One of the centrepieces of the exhibition is the Declaration of Human Rights engraved with the sharp end of a compass on 40 Bic ballpoints, as on a cheat sheet. Answer. By doing this I relate Human Rights to the idea of oblivion. They’re concealed. It’s a fundamental text for humans, but it’s flouted everywhere. Together with the work, a video shows how the piece was made. It’s very important to highlight the unpleasant sound of thepens being scratched.Visual arts82Results ’14