Suso Fandiño and Jorge Perianes. Looks like it’s going torain.

Suso Fandiño and Jorge Perianes are simultaneously exhibiting in the spaces of Palexco and Kiosko Alfonso in A Coruña. La Letra con sangre entra i Sin título are two entirely different sorts of proposal for two individual exhibitions, at a perfect moment for these two Galician creators.

Immersed in campaigns in support of the institutions that remember young creators when the storm breaks it’s odd to end up attending two exhibition openings in two such municipal spaces that don’t just stand out solely for their low budgets. The fact is that Kiosko Alfonso and Palexco, both in A Coruña, began, a little over a year ago, a series of shows in which artists such Álvaro Negro, Teo Soriano or Nicolás Combarro have shown different proposals indicating beyond any doubt the golden moment –helped by other spaces such as the MAC (previously MACUF)- that contemporary art is going through in this city.

There were two openings last 4 December of the exhibitions that will remain in these spaces until the 10 February. In the case of Suso Fandiño, La letra con sangre entra tackles the televised pathos of North American high school culture. Banners in support of the quarterback quarterback that change their messages of animation for ones of utter failure. Fandiño is characterised by showing the hackneyed image of frustration, of transforming the graffiti on the toilet door into a message, hiding behind its superficial exterior the harsh reality of a system that gobbles up the loser. It reminds one at times of that final bit of Stroszek that Herzon rewards us with, the terrible scene with the chicken dancing to the electric shocks in the middle of a disco-bar stage set, a shot that puts an end to the waster´s nightmare.

Recently produced pieces that follow in the line of dramatizing the art market, in a gesture that refers to grand advertising campaigns and confronts gestures of an ultimately conceptual nature. Fandiño looks at Warhol and at Beuys with the same mocking face that later transforms into admiration, with the changing gesture of the psychotic, out the confusion that that can arise on seeing a clown suffer like the one tortured by Bruce Nauman. To this series of works now being shown in Palexco, under the curatorship of María Peña Lombao, is added the careful edition of a book that the artist has converted into a toy. Cutouts, stickers, scratch-its and join the dot exercises turn this publication into a collection of pastimes. Suso Fandiño shows here how even in his dedication to a large book he hasn´t been able to avoid converting into a painting and colouring book.

Crossing the street we find ourselves in the impossible space of the Kiosko Alfonso. Here, Jorge Perianes has sought to neutralize radically the internal structure of the building. Dozens of wooden ladders interpose in the pathway of the spectator, their chaotic disposition redirecting the viewer in an intervention that is not apt for the superstitious. Perianes once again surprises us with another of his unforeseeable solutions and tests the space by eliminating its limits, opening holes in the panels that close the spaces off from the exterior, blocking the way through to the stairs or providing access to unimaginable zones. The Sin título in large letters at the main door makes it clear that everyone can establish a different dialogue with the installation. There is no ingenious adolescent poetry, no use of tendentious gestures and this is what differentiates the work of Jorge Perianes from others who want to but can´t. Rafael Lens has been in charge of the curating, bringing an external viewpoint that in these cases proposes variations on the initial project of the artist, unleashing imperceptible potholes from within to create a sort of Piranesi prison within this building, that thinking about it, has clearly been imprisoned for decades by its unfeasible interior. This project and a compilation of the different interventions that Perianes has carried out over the last few years will be the main thread of a publication that will see the light of day in the next few weeks. This project and a compilation of the different interventions that Perianes has carried out over the last few years will be the main thread of a publication that will see the light of day in the next few weeks.

We are currently in a golden moment for Galician art, however –except for the aforementioned cases – it seems that they are continuing to call at completely closed doors. The ridiculous exercise of waiting to hear the opinion of the savants continues to remain in force, and so it goes on. It’s a mess. Looks like it’s going to rain.