The 33rd edition of ARCOmadrid came to an end last Sunday 23rd February. Over 160 galleries from 25 countries filled IFEMA’s pavillions for five intense days. Only three London galleries – not counting Marlborough* – were represented at the event: Faggionatto, Arcade, and Carroll/Fletcher.
Foto © Pablo Mesegar
The 33rd edition of ARCOmadrid came to an end last Sunday 23rd February. Over 160 galleries from 25 countries filled IFEMA’s pavillions for five intense days. Only three London galleries – not counting Marlborough* – were represented at the event: Faggionatto, Arcade, and Carroll/Fletcher.
Though intended mainly for dealers and buyers, an art fair – especially one on the scale of ARCO – is a unique and borderline surreal place for the casual visitor. When you’re roaming the busy aisles between world-renowned galleries, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations and wealthy, shiny-looking people smiling at each other. The visual assault is constant and most of the artworks are, naturally, shown completely out of context. Like when you repeat the same word over and over again until it loses all meaning, you are confronted with so many different artworks that after a while it all becomes blurry. Then you’re just looking at odd things on the wall that a very rich man is in the process of buying for three times the money you make in a year. It’s bizarre.
Its authenticity as a monochrome implies its falseness as a canvas; its cloth, stretcher and staples are made of solid white paint. Blank is a trompe-l’œil of a ready-made. It is also a trompe-l’œil of the absence of paint, simulated with paint. Carrol/Fletcher
It was in this sort of daze that I walked into Carroll/Fletcher’s stand and found myself staring at a small blank canvas on the wall. It seemed a bit lost and sad, all by itself in the corner. All the other canvases had at least some paint on them. It was only upon further investigation that I realized that this canvas was by Spanish artist Karmelo Bermejo.
Blank is a lie. A trick. It’s not a blank canvas at all. In fact, it is’nt even a canvas. Blank was made by applying hundreds and hundreds of layers of white paint, over the course of more than six months, to create the shape of a ready-made canvas.
“Its authenticity as a monochrome implies its falseness as a canvas; its cloth, stretcher and staples are made of solid white paint. Blank is a trompe-l’œil of a ready-made. It is also a trompe-l’œil of the absence of paint, simulated with paint.”Carrol/Fletcher
Karmelo Bermejo, Blank, 2012-2013 © arsty.net
Carroll/Fletcher, says he explores “the art world’s ´manipulation´ of the luxury economy [while] seeking to reveal the value systems, whether commercial or of prestige, that influence the various structures sustaining the world of contemporary art”
So now, when I think of myself standing there in front of that little blank canvas, surrounded by thousands of strange objects, next to hundreds of sharply-dressed people who guffawed, pitched, sold, bought and sweated over these strange objects, I can’t help but think that Blank, that little liar, was one the most truthful strange object of them all.
ARCOmadrid 2014 was open from the 19th to the 23rd of February. Karmelo Bermejo was the winner of the 2010 ARCOmadrid Award. He’s had exhibitions in the Young Artists’ Biennal of Bucharest, Para/Site Art Space in Hong Kong, espacio ONG in Caracas and the Bloomsberg Space here in London.
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http://www.karmelobermejo.com/en
* Although Marlborough is also based in London, they were represented in ARCO through its galleries in Spain (based in Madrid and Barcelona).