(The precarious future of) Sustainable Trash

Is art nothing more than sustainable waste: Garbage with purpose and a place in the future? Maybe. But if something endures, has it been wasted? Is it still qualified as trash or does it speak of alternative possibilities for value?

The recent work of Stefan Gross sees him as a sort of scientist setting out to transform both material and immaterial cultural waste by employing a formalistic approach to physical properties and a slapstick approach to cultural underpinnings. Found objects, rescued toys and human practical and spiritual necessity are employed as the artist works to recreate a problematic that concerns him: “The world is a serious place these days. This is the problem that I try to solve with my work.”

Following “The Superhero Project,” “More Future,” “Moussism” (with Jeroen Jongeleen) and the creation of the signature “Golden Mousse” (Tobias Allanson), HLP will close the year with a 5^th Mousse Process Exhibition. This December, Stefan Gross will present figurative and abstract works with polymer, offering a colorful twist to pressing social contradictions.

Stefan Gross is the recipient of the AEG Art prize, the Kunstverein Drawing Prize and the Frits Philips Art Prize. He has been awarded funding for his ‘art you can hit’ project with Stella Boess (Love, Hate, Punch) by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. In 2009, he participated to the ‘Inside Job’ Group Exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam, curated by Jeroen Jongeleen).

On Thursday November 24th, Cuban New Yorker and Barcelonaphile urban artist Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada will unveil his breathtaking and ground breaking new work at Galería Ignacio de Lassaletta. Presenting new pieces from the Urban Analogies charcoal drawing series created on 250 year old wall surfaces and the new Memorylithics sculpture series, using discarded historical architectural elements over 500 years old. All the work in this exhibition is based on the intangible memory that these materials possess and the passage of time that they portray. To celebrate the occasion a printed special edition catalogue of 1 to 500 numbered copies, including an insightful essay by Iván de la Nuez, will feature all of the exhibited works.

Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada is a founder of the New York Culture Jamming movement and an innovator in the international urban art scene. Since the late 90´s he has been replacing the faces of cultural icons chosen by advertisers with the faces of anonymous people to question the controls imposed on public space, the role models designated and the type of events that are guarded by the collective memory. Rodríguez-Gerada´s unique direction was mentioned in Naomi Klein´s book No Logo and was a precursor of the use of anonymous portraits now common in street art. His spectacular interventions are created for the sake of bringing awareness to relevant social issues. His large scale time base works avoid negative impact on the environment, challenge the conformity in contemporary art and allow for a reflection that goes beyond the completion of the piece to focus in its concept, process, and the metaphor that comes forth because of the material chosen.

‘In spite of the growth in time periods and dimensions, and in spite of Rodríguez-Gerada never betraying his urban condition, his work does not ‘crumble’ in a gallery. It has its own presence that doesn’t really listen to a change of scale, nor acts as a mini-sized version of his usual work pattern. Like in all his itinerary, the point is to move a world into another world, a time into a different time, a meaning into an altogether ‘other’ meaning. For this, his pieces behave like a ready-made solution, willing to pay their debts with Art in general and with Urban Art in particular. Is it calling on Banksy or Blu? Both, but also on Duchamp, Brancusi or Picabia, as well as from Rosalind Krauss’ ‘expanded sculptures’, from Robert Smithson or Ana Mendieta.’
Iván de la Nuez. Essayist and Curator.

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