Dora Garcia

Vibraciones new project of Dora García for MUSAC MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, presents Vibraciones, an exhibition by the artist from Castilla y León, Dora García, who for several years now is based in Belgium. This show gathers the different works she has done in the last ten years wherein she investigates on the different strategies used in artistic creation to study the influence of sound within the environment in which it is created, as well as the public receptor. The title of the show alludes to a double reference: the vibration of air that is generated by sound, as well as the title of the musical magazine Vibraciones, that was distributed in Spain in the 70’s and 80’s. The exhibition includes new versions of previous works and various pieces done specially for the occasion, as well as works of this artist from the MUSAC Collection. The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León is an initiative of the Junta de Castilla y León through the Fundación Siglo.

The work of Dora García (1965, Valladolid, Spain) is characterized by a strong conceptual content that, taking different creative techniques as starting point, investigates on the construction of fictions to decode the infinite relationships that are produced between the subject and the context within which it emerges from. Continually in transit over the subtle limit that separates the real with the unreal and starting from specific narrations and scenes, her works reflect on the search of identity. An identity that can only be possible as the product of a negotiation process of the individual with his environment. The relationship between these two elements is produced in a state of mutual dependence that makes one dissociable to the other.

All the works included in the show, Vibraciones, gather in some way the relationship that is established between the transmitter and the receptor, in which sound conforms as a privileged medium of the communication process. In this way we find one of the most representative pieces of the artist that belongs to the MUSAC Collection: La lección respiratoria (2001). This is a work that reflects on the relationship of dependence and the annulment of will that appears in the conventions of human dialogue.

DJ Los Muertos and Lifetime Soundtrack, new versions In the same manner, new versions of previous works, as well as the sound installation of DJ Los Muertos, presented for the first time in Manifesta 2 (Luxembourg, 1998), re-elaborated and modified by the artist with the help of DJ Madel, will be presented in the exhibition. In this work, the artist investigates on the different strategies used through sound for the fixation of a collective memory, and on the power of the DJ to direct the versions of our lives, an idea that is subtly associated in a poetic manner with the work, Lifetime soundtrack (1997), that, visualized in a monitor and presented together with the new performance, Quarry Jeans, welcomes the spectator to the exhibition.

The performance Quarry Jeans (2005) has its origins in a talking man-advertisement that the artist saw atop a window sill in the city of Mexico promoting Quarry Jeans –a jeans brand. This performance, which was done specifically for the show, is also a homage to Felix González Torres and his go-go boy.

Quarry Jeans will be represented in the entrance of the exhibition space during the three months’ duration of the exhibit. This work is a reflection on the role of the public in the communication process of artistic work and the capacity of influence that communication media exerts on them.

Two important works close the exhibit. The first one, done specially for the show and at the same time gives it its title Vibraciones, is a new installation composed of de-contextualized fragments of the cultural magazine under the same title, that gathered the most important musical contents and events in Spain during the 70’s and 80’s. Lastly, Lo posible (2004) is an interactive installation about the syntaxes and sounds that we come to join and implement for the realization of a sound narrative.

A work in progress undertaken in the city of León will be revealed on the opening day

Parallel to the exhibition, a specific work in progress that was developed in a consciously secret manner during the three months prior to the opening of the show, will be presented. In this project the artist delves into the interstices of the musical culture, fictional narratives, and urban subcultures, all of them with the public of the city of León as background. This project will be revealed on the same day that the exhibition will be inaugurated.

Catalogue of the exhibition Si/ yes/ oui, no/ no/ non On occasion of the show, a book-CD will be published, co-produced with the Frac Bourgogne Centre (Paris) entitled, si/ yes/ oui, no/ no/ non. The said publication includes texts by the curator of the show, Agustin Pérez Rubio (Chief Curator of MUSAC), together with Peter Doroshenko (Director of Baltic, U.K); Edwin Carels (Director of the Film and Photography Museum in Antwerpen, Belgium), Guillame Mansart (Independent Curator, Paris) and François Piron (Independent Curator, Paris).

Dora Garcia
Vibraciones
Kurator: Agustin Perez Rubio