WORK

Fruits of Luck and Misfortune

Portrait of the Artist as a Machine

One Thousand Years of Contemporary Architecture

Wolves Are Fiercer on the Other Side

Objects in Places

Amaurot World's Fair

Lumpenkult

Ruins of the Anthropocene

The Future Lies Behind

The Barbarians Among Us

Alternate Monuments

Rewriting the 21st Century

Rise and Fall of a Rogue State

Analog Documents

Fake Wall Paintings

Scenes of a Revolution yet to Come

Lives of Eminent Philosophers

Last Days of Capitalism

Concrete Processes

Banners / Posters

Sculptures (2007-2011)

Drawings (2007-2011)

TEXTS

CV/CONTACT

 

FRUITS OF LUCK AND MISFORTUNE This 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.
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 / 70 x 38 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)