ENTROPY

ENTROPY
Antonio R. Montesinos
From 04 Feb to 03 Apr 2016

EL PALMERAL. ESPACIO INICIARTE



CATALOGUE

 DIGITAL      BUY

There is nothing random or coincidental about Antonio R. Montesino's exhibition project Entropía (Equilibrio, ruido, dispersión) [Entropy (Balance, Noise, Dispersion)], for through it the artist primarily aims to address and elucidate two themes that have dominated his recent work: the questioning of organisational models and the construction of new models based on a reinterpretation of objects that the current system discards as waste.     

With this goal in mind, he has made the concept of entropy his narrative thread. This notion is usually associated with the natural tendency towards disorder and chaos, but entropy is a natural system of balance that disintegrates structures to ensure the maximum dispersion and stability of their elements. The project highlights the dispersion of knowledge via the internet, and how that free exchange of information and know-how can influence the process of restructuring disintegration and the construction of new models.      

Drawing on these ideas, establishing connections between two kinds of economies (the global capitalist economy and what is now known as the sharing economy) and linking the project to the venue's location in the port district of Málaga, Montesinos has created a kind of waiting room in the exhibition space at El Palmeral, one of those in-between places so ubiquitous in our contemporary world. On arrival, visitors are greeted by the piece EUR EPAL, a set of wooden blocks stamped with the standardised measurements of European pallets. Moving into the gallery, they come across the installation Esperar a que todo tiemble [Waiting for Everything to Shake], consisting of twenty seats made out of modified wooden pallets that the artist customised with the help of YouTube tutorials. The seats allow visitors to sit down, flip through some books and listen to Oasis of the Seas, an instrumental track somewhere between vaporwave and easy listening music composed by Albert Zaragoza Gas. They can also watch the "how-to-make" video tutorial and observe the poster entitled You can do your own variations, which provides step-by-step instructions on how to assemble the seat, or turn their attention to the series of CNC-machined drawings on wooden panels hanging on the wall: Bus (entropía I) [Bus (Entropy I)], Avión (entropía II) [Aeroplane (Entropy II)], Parlamento (entropía III) [Parliament (Entropy III)] and Auditorio (entropía IV) [Auditorium (Entropy IV)]. These drawings show the seats being scattered in four separate and significant spaces, mirroring their dispersal in the gallery, where a built-in vibration system activated at regular intervals interrupts the spectators' moment of relaxation: the seats begin to shake when the system kicks in, creating disorder and a loud noise—another conceptual cornerstone of the exhibition—that disrupts the experience of quiet contemplation.

This situation will probably create tension in visitors, forcing them to take a second look at the objects in the room and try to understand why the seats on which they were resting are made out of pallets and why they are not neatly arranged within the grid drawn on the floor, thus offering them a different perspective every time they visit the exhibition.

The exhibition catalogue features an essaies When Everything Goes Topsy-Turvy  by Juan Canela and Places of the possible by Jesús Alcaide.

GAlLERY





Antonio R. Montesinos

Ronda (Málaga), 1979.

Has a BFA from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and an MA in Digital Arts from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. His work has been exhibited at a variety of art centres and venues, including La Centrale Électrique (Brussels), Centro Ex-Teresa (Mexico), Gdansk City Gallery (Poland), Hospital Club (London), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona), I+CAS (Seville), CAAC (Seville), CACMA (Málaga) and EACC (Castellón). Some of his most important solo projects have been Inopias at Galería Josedelafuente (Santander), Plan General de Ordenación Urbana at Casa Sostoa (Málaga), and How To Make a Dome at La Taller (Bilbao). Montesinos has also participated in group shows such as Alrededor es imposible at La Casa Encendida (Madrid).


He has received grants from institutions like Injuve, Iniciarte and Instituto Ramon Llull and completed residencies at several centres, including the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia (Bamberg), BilbaoArte (Bilbao) and Residencia de Estudiantes (Madrid). In addition to developing his own creative output, Montesinos has been actively involved in a number of collaborative projects, such as the D_forma collective, the independent productions space Rampa, El deseo de andar, Correspondencias desde Eyjafjallajokull, and La Ciudad Demudada.

 

 

 



INICIARTE