| Faith and Enthusiasm
Antonio Ortega
22 January–29 February
The work of Antonio Ortega (Sant Celoni, 1968) explores social behaviour and dynamics. He often creates “records” that, using a strategy akin to that of fables, draw on easily recognisable references in order to portray or exemplify certain situations. For instance, in Registro de Ahilamiento [Record of Etiolation] (1996), he grew a plant inside a long cardboard tube so that, when the tube was removed, the plant would wilt. In Registro d eEsponsorización [Record of Sponsorship] (1999–2000), he used the production budget for his exhibition in Barcelona to sponsor an English piglet named Lucy, providing her with care, food and veterinary support for a year. In Registro de Bondad [Record of Goodness] (1999), the artist induced vomiting, collected the result in a jar, and left it in the garden of his London home, where birds would come to eat it. As David G. Torres aptly wrote: “These are records in which the exceptional sits just a millimetre away from the futile. It is in that millimetre that his works are located (…). The document, seemingly banal and a simple portrait of an experience carried out by Antonio Ortega, has the ability to unfold with great intensity in the realm of meaning.” In each of these cases, the behaviour, reaction and role of the plants and animals become portraits or projections of our own patterns of adaptation, submission or the acceptance of the prejudices embedded in acts of generosity.
From a naïve position that steers clear of cynicism, Antonio Ortega observes, with constant doubt and perplexity, the mechanisms that shape the dynamics of artistic production and its role in society. In Antonio Ortega and the Contestants (2002), for example, he transformed what was originally meant to be a solo exhibition at The Showroom in London into a group show featuring five recent graduates from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Through this proposal, he exposed the dynamics of artistic production, mimicking the promotional strategies of other areas of pop culture while also exploring ideas around authorship and the hierarchical, competitive nature of the art world.
Faith and Enthusiasm is rooted in a reflection that has occupied Ortega for some time: the realisation that only success can stop an artist from appearing naïve. He described this idea during a talk he gave in March 2002 at CaixaForum: “(…) I believe there is nothing more pathetic than a visual artist – or a singer, or an actor – who hasn’t achieved success, because only a dose of success can neutralise the sense of naivety in an artist wholly devoted to their career. If you still have any doubts, follow me through this exercise: mute the success of a globally famous artist. Think of any prestigious artist and imagine they only show their work to their elderly parents. Every Sunday, they go to their parents’ house for lunch with the family, and after coffee, they show them their latest artistic projects (…). I don’t know about you, but when I was writing this, I imagined Joseph Beuys, very dignified and composed, carefully collecting on a tray the lumps of congealed fat stuck to the walls of Mum and Dad Beuys’s dining room. That’s why I accept my condition as naïve (…).”
Faith and Enthusiasm examines today’s media landscape, which generates a cast of characters who embody archetypes and stereotypical values. In Spain, television has spawned a hybrid genre between reality TV and soap opera, in which the lives and exploits of these figures can be followed, commented on and morally judged – automatically positioning the audience in a place of superiority. The people who inhabit this media universe are no longer public figures (famous) because of their professional activity; instead, the ups and downs of their private lives have become their profession. Achieving and maintaining fame at any cost is one of their core principles. Faith and Enthusiasm focuses on one such figure: Yola Berrocal, a paradigm of celebrity construction and, in Ortega’s words, “the true muse of enthusiasm” – utterly convinced of her artistic talent. Ortega shares with Berrocal a belief – in his work and in the possibility of success – that distances him from cynicism.
In Faith and Enthusiasm, Ortega takes an entomological approach to this media universe. His project involves setting up a fundraising office to support the creation of a wax figure of Yola Berrocal. In today’s media-driven culture, having a waxwork made in one’s likeness is a symbolic indicator of the highest level of fame – Madonna, for instance, only achieved this recognition relatively recently. The office proposed by Ortega is run by an art educator and independent curator, David Armengol, together with two final-year Fine Arts students, Lucía Moreno and Eva Noguera. Their task is to make contacts, prepare proposals and seek sponsorship funding to make the wax figure of Yola Berrocal a reality.
With a slight shift in aim and context, the office faithfully reproduces the production and communication structures of contemporary art. Ortega draws on references that are easy for us to recognise – a plant, Lucy the piglet, the birds in his London garden, the skits of Faemino y Cansado, Yola Berrocal – but with enough distance to allow us to reflect. These scenarios, though seemingly far removed from our own experience, speak directly to us. The humour with which we first approach them often gives way to deep discomfort when we realise that the fables Ortega tells are actually about all of us. Only from a genuinely naïve stance can the artist truly question our reality and the values we take to be absolute.
Montse Badia
January 2004 |
