Swab Barcelona presents Solo Show & Video Box

The Solo Show

“The blue color of my sky”

Curated By Yipei Lee and Carla Jaria

The Solo Show project emerges from the initiative to establish a platform dedicated to local independent spaces from Barcelona. This proposal stands as an exploration around self-identity and new ways of working from a collective perspective in the presentation of solo exhibitions. In collaboration with the Fundació Vila Casas, this project not only aims to promote local artistic talent, but also that of new emerging figures in the field of curating.

In this edition, the project expands further, seeking to establish a dialogue with the participation of a guest territory and curator. In this case, the invited territory will be the city of Taipei, establishing an encounter with Barcelona through 8 proposals, 4 from each place, under the curatorship of Yipei Lee (Taipei) and Carla Jaria (Barcelona).

Under the evocative title “The blue color of my sky”, a concept is proposed that explores the media and social contexts from the perspective of “Redistribution”, which implies a reinterpretation of power relationships. The integration of economic, social, political and cultural factors generate a direct correlation that leads to the deconstruction of the discourses and the “redefinition of practicality” for the sake of artistic thought. This process of deconstructing the discourse will involve value judgments, perspectives of vision and levels of intimacy in interaction. 

The 8 proposals will reflect on the notion of collective identity, making use of everyday materials, narratives and scenarios. The artists generate visual and conceptual dislocations around the everydayness of the body, architecture and landscape. By introducing them into a new symbolic and social environment with its own logics, they invite us to think about resilient ways of inhabiting contemporaneity. The German philosopher Björn Kraus, developer of constructivist epistemology, defines the lifeworld as the subjective construction of reality that a person forms under the conditions of their vital environment.

Likewise, by generating dialogues between both territories on nuclear notions of shared concerns, the artists present intersections on the media and the logic of standardized actions -Toni Crabb and Fu Wan-Ting-, the representation of everyday life through the body -Fabià Claramunt and Ho Chan-, the systems of organization -Estanis Comella and Kuo-Wei Lin- or the construction of history and contemporary stories from the image -Oscar Holloway and Wu Chan-Lun-.

A collaborative art exhibition is like a pause in space-time; a heterotopia, as Michel Focault would introduce in 1966 to refer to those spaces, physical or mental, that function in non-hegemonic conditions: they are worlds within other worlds or even counter-spaces that both reflect and alter what is outside. One of the principles of heterotopia, precisely, is that of deviation, which appeals to those individual behaviors different from those established by the norm. Exploring both “Redistribution” and “Deviation”, this curated program within SWAB, opens avenues for observing, questioning and disfiguring the fabric of affirmations and logics embedded in our social body. 

“The Blue Color of My Sky” explores how Barcelona based and Taiwanese artists transform their knowledge of media and images, break conventional narrative patterns, and mutually construct a Life World with their own perceptual practices as they play a part in the process of modernization. When looking closely at the artworks, the weight of the support, the composition of the objects and the light of the material will trigger the depth of our sensation. In other words, the Vital Worlds of the artists not only allow the audience to reflect on the symbol and structure behind the works, but also allow us to appreciate the independent value of the language of art and its collision with the future.

Exhibitors:

Barcelona:

Raccoon Projects

Halfhouse

espai19

FASE

Taipei:

EQUAL 

SHISHISHI 

SUAVEART 

SS SPACE SPACE

VIDEO BOX 2024

Intimacy: the moments of social skin

Curated By Yipei Lee

Anthropologist Terence Turner coined the term ‘social skin.’ It ranges from ornaments, hair styles, make-up, cover-ups, clothing, tattoos, piercings and scratches, to bodybuilding or slimming, muscle development and cosmetic surgery. Whether natural or artificial, extreme or seemingly whimsical, social skin is meaningful to the times we live through and is always influenced and represented by the socialization of human behavior.

In conclusion, as demonstrated by the exhibition titled ‘Intimacy: The Moments of Social Skin,’ our society is a rich tapestry woven from the diverse threads of different generations, each reflecting unique dimensions of social interaction and identity. Despite coexisting within a vast and interconnected environment, we often find ourselves unable to fully grasp its entirety. Yet, this very incompleteness is an integral aspect of the beauty of society, as it embodies the intricate rhythm of human existence and interaction.

Within this intricate web, images serve as invaluable artifacts of what we might term ‘futuring typology’—capturing not only moments frozen in time but also hinting at the potential trajectories of our collective future. Through the narrative use of video imagery, Taiwanese artists participating in this exhibition offer poignant insights into the nuances of regional and global development, particularly in the realms of pluralism and social status.

As we draw closer to these depictions, we find ourselves increasingly immersed in the authenticity they convey, forging deeper connections with the realities they portray. Thus, by bearing witness to, portraying, and memorializing these pivotal moments, we contribute to a richer understanding of the complex interplay between individuals, societies, and the evolving landscapes of our shared world.

Participant artists:

Chen Chien-Jen

Wu Chi-Tsung

Hsu Che-Yu

Ciwas Tahos (Anchi Lin) 

CHEN CHIEH-JEN

​A Field of Non-Field, 2017

Medium: Single Channel Video

Size: 61’07” 

Under the development of financial competition and technological capitalism, which has developed a global manipulation that is more penetrating than previous forms of governance, not only are more people being reduced to the status of pan-dispatched workers under “global imprisonment and local exile”, but it is also more difficult to open up the desire structure, sensory structure, and way of thinking of contemporary societies which have been encompassed and penetrated by the post-internet era’s global manipulation technology. This puts the survival of contemporary societies into the battlefield for each other. 

“Is there any other way out for human beings? In response to this difficult question, to which no simple answer is possible, the artist rethinks the topic of “emptiness” in “Zhongguang Xue” created by Avalokiteshvara, and puts into practice the “Middle Way” method with its spirit of multi-dialecticism. In order to embody and practice how to establish other epistemologies, modes of thinking and values of life in a world that is encompassed and penetrated by the technology to qualitatively change the way of life. This is one of the ways to qualitatively change the global manipulation technology.

Wu Chi-Tsung

PERSPECTIVE VIDEO, 2008

Medium: Single Channel Video

Size: 06’07”

The central focus of his creative work has always been a discussion as to the real nature of images; how they are produced, perceived by viewers and the impact they have. However, the way in which this is executed has never been particularly disciplined or scientific, resembling something more akin to a game. Sometimes he experiments with just one part, or exchange some of the elements to see what changes that causes in the creation of images and whether there is anything of interest hidden inside.

A great deal of the depth of illusion created by pictures or images comes from the single point of perspective. In other words, all straight lines not parallel to the picture disappear into some point in the distance, almost as though space is being sucked into a bottomless hole. It was this view point that made him wonder what the viewable world would be like if there was no point of disappearance.

‘’I guess it would be really flat.”

Hsu Che-Yu

RABBIT 314, 2020

Medium: Single Channel Video

Size: 7’17”

A glove puppetry performer reinvents and reenacts the movements of a dead rabbit, which ended its life in a laboratory. Rabbit 314 questions the manipulation and appropriation of animals by humans. The project was initiated by the death of a laboratory rabbit, and was inspired by the artist’s family memories. The artist’s grandma served in an animal laboratory for thirty years, during which, due to the particularity of her job, she had to dissect living animals for observation and experiments.

Ciwas Tahos (Anchi Lin)

Pswagi Temahahoi, 2022

Medium: Single Channel Video

Size: 12’00” Edition:1/4 

Pswagi Temahahoi connects different methods of artistic imagination to explore the space of Temahahoi; it’s oral storytelling among Atayal people of a place where only women and gender non-conforming people live who can communicate with bees and become impregnated by wind. This video work combines documentary and audio-visual performance to weave a hybrid video installation piece.

The documentary follows the path taken by Atayal Elder Yumin, who uses a technique named pswagi, utilizing sunlight as an embodied tool to trace the locations of wild bee hives and also as a way to find Temahahoi, alongside a staged performance piece with a self-invented and assembled ceramic instrument, the wind (breath) blowing from the queer bodies goes into the genderless ceramic instrument to relocate the fluid space of Temahahoi through sound.

Source: Swab Barcelona