FRUITS OF LUCK AND MISFORTUNEThis series was originally conceived for the show Machines, Roulettes, Tricks and Cheats, curated by Julia Coelho and Renan Araujo at the Centre Grau-Garriga in Sant Cugat del Vallès. The starting point was the Casino de la Rabassada, an early 20th century leisure and cultural complex in the Serra de Collserola. The exhibition was a circular essay combining decadence and precarity with the culture of excess.The casino building, once surrounded by a garden with plants from all over the world, is now in ruins. In contrast to the decline of this type of establishment, created by and for the bourgeoisie, we have recently witnessed the proliferation of gambling halls in the neighbourhoods of our cities. These places, frequented by people of modest means, are a substitute for casinos, reproducing in a low-cost version the same dynamics of desire management typical of gambling. The works mimic fresco technique, alluding to the modernist ornamentation and plant imagery that adorned the casino's architecture. Some of these visual elements have become part of the iconography used in slot machines and gaming rooms, stylised to the point of becoming symbols independent of their natural referent. However, if we do not allow ourselves to be blinded by the brightness of the colours, we can see how the fruit rots, how the hands that work (and gamble) are exhausted, that luck is not for everyone and that the virtual is not entirely immaterial. |
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Seven Golden Coins 2024 / 33 x 90 cm / Gouache and plaster on wood |
Installation View Machines, Roulettes, Tricks and Cheats / Centre Grau-Garriga, Sant Cugat del Vallès / 2024 |
Seven Golden Coins (detail) |
Bell in the Dark 2024 / 33 x 90 cm / Gouache and plaster on wood |
Installation View Machines, Roulettes, Tricks and Cheats / Centre Grau-Garriga, Sant Cugat del Vallès / 2024 |
Bell in the Dark (detail) |
Magic Horseshoes 2024 / 45 x 41 cm / Gouache and plaster on wood |
Installation View Machines, Roulettes, Tricks and Cheats / Centre Grau-Garriga, Sant Cugat del Vallès / 2024 |
Magic Horseshoes (detail) |
Last Chance 2024 / 35 x 36 cm / Gouache and plaster on wood |
Installation View Machines, Roulettes, Tricks and Cheats / Centre Grau-Garriga, Sant Cugat del Vallès / 2024 |
Last Chance (detail) |