The new exhibit at Halfhouse, which is no longer placed in that idyllic environment but in another more manufacturing and connected to people, opens under no title or apparent need. A space located in the neighbourhood of La Verneda that, due to its proximity, it is integrated in the artistic net of Poblenou. Therefore, it already allows to glimpse a change of direction.

The exhibition, made up of works by Susana Solano, Fernando García, Oier Iruretagoinea, Pablo Capitán del Río and Idoia Montón, expresses a sort of sign towards the existential vacuum. Four white canvas placed at the back of the room form a transcendental space that can be accessed bordering sculptures in the shape of a cross on top of which the gravity of time is deposited as stones.  The superposition of materials –and textures- carried out by Oier Iruretagoinea is kind of an imperfect allegory to the also imperfect layers of time. This is interrupted by the dark abyss of the sculpture by Susana Solano –No lo sé nº1– which marks a milestone in the exhibit walkthrough.

The surprising thing about the exhibit is the little dialogue that the works by Idoia Montón have with the rest. Her agonizing paintings seem to look ourselves in a sort of a sacred madhouse which is in another phase of the exhibition discourse, completely clear and that breaks apart that sensory journey and pictorially harmonious of the other works. It happens the same thing with her collage. A feeling of confusion that increases with the lack of information about the project, something that probably has to be understood as a declaration of intents but what mainly does in the practice is to drive away who tries to get close.

The gesture of opening vacuums –visual, narrative- is, without any doubt, necessary because with them new readings and actions that, in one way or another, get out of the reflective centrality, are joint together. What is incomprehensible is that this happens due to a distancing with the spectator. It produces, once again, an auratic space that instead of including, puts off any type of approach. Is this what we want? Or in other words, is this what we need?

Exhibition view. Photographs: Pol Aregall

(Highlighted image: Oier Iruretagoiena, Sin título, 2018)