CARLES CONGOST
Paradigm
Carles Congost, Paradigm, 2012 – Video HD, 10.15 Minutes
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OPENING: Saturday, 23 June 2012 – h 6.00 pm
25 June 2012 – 04 August 2012
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Artericambi is pleased to present Paradigm, the solo exhibition of Carles Congost. “Paradigm” compared to previous works represents both a formal and a conceptual turning point. In this new work, the artist’s commitment clearly shifts towards a cinematographic language, pushing itself into the new territory of suggestion and ambiguity.
The video can easily be traced back to the police genre typical of both films and TV series. The characters that belong to the story: the typical white-haired American policeman, the father of the family, who could very well be an insurance salesman, the boy who is presumed to be the teenage son and the second unabashed agent who controls the evolution of the affair through the rear-view mirror of the car, they appear gradually and in slow motion, integrating into an environment that leaves little room for improvisation.
Despite the multiplicity of clichés represented in the first scenes of the film, the narrative progressively releases subtle and disturbing signals that aim to articulate a mysterious choreography, a sort of ritual that conveys the fortuitous meeting of the characters towards an unusual dimension, far from stereotyped dynamics. of the typical law enforcement methodology and its rigid system of laws. We will never know exactly what prompted the officers to carry out the inspection or what the occupants of the vehicle were afraid of. We are simply faced with a situation in which everything is possible, which incites us to formulate our individual conjectures through the analysis of the behavior, gestures and expressions of the protagonists. We can formulate a hypothesis based on the idea of coincidence, of a chance encounter between two independent universes at a precise point within a space-time continuum, a fact that, in itself and for some unknown reason, would be able to determine the change paradigm to which the title of the work refers.
In this sense, the first universe would consist in the couple of policemen while the second in the occupants of the inspected car. The first impression we have of the two policemen is that they are threatening and authoritarian, but as the confrontation deepens, they reveal a surprising capacity for empathy and emotional reaction to the impulses of others. In any case, what transpires from their correlation is that between the two agents there is a great complicity. A complicity that could go back a long time ago, based on the progressive learning and development of a sort of anomalous extrasensory perception. The relationship between the alleged insurance salesman and the child develops on a very different frequency.
From the moment the policeman approaches to inspect the vehicle, the two characters look at each other several times, as if looking for an answer (perhaps, simply, a look of complicity). In this case, we do not have the impression that the goal has been achieved, but rather the opposite, their insistence shows the possibility of an unresolved conflict between them. At times, we seem to perceive in their expressions a kind of guilt, or even evidence of a secret that is about to be revealed. In any case: who is the culprit of the two? In this video we find numerous references to contemporary films and directors such as the mythical western Once Upon A Time In The West, (1968), directed by Sergio Leone starring Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. Paradigm’s original score was composed by Greek musician Evripidis Sabatis and Stefano Maccarrone, a member of the Barcelona-based pop group Mendetz.
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Carles Congost, Installation view “Paradigm”, 2012
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(LEFT) Carles Congost, Paradigm Series 1, 2012 – C-print on aluminum bond, 39 x 59 inch / (RIGHT) Carles Congost, Paradigm Series 4, 2012 – C-print on aluminum bond, 44 x 59 inch
Carles Congost, Paradigm Series 3, 2012 – C-print on aluminum bond, 44 x 59 inch
Carles Congost, Paradigm, 2012 – Video HD, 10.15 Minutes