Chapter II. Escapes. Fiction as rigour

ROSA BARBA / HARIS EPAMINONDA/ LILLI HARTMANN / ANTONI HERVÀS / MARLA JACARILLA / OLIVIA PLENDER / FRANCESC RUIZ / ARIEL SCHLESINGER

+ Constant / Carlos Pazos / Zush

Curated by David Armengol and Martí Manen

II. Escapes: Fiction as Rigour is the second chapter in The Text: First Notions and Findings, the 2013–2014 programme of exhibitions and activities at Fabra i Coats – Barcelona Contemporary Art Centre. The first chapter analysed the chronicle as a form of writing and this second part explores the narrative possibilities of fiction. Situations involving escapes where reality ceases to be the only parameter, and invention, fantasy and simulation give the narrative thread an alternative private truth.

Means of escape, superposed layers, rereadings, a fascination with detail, strange characters and situations… In short, a cosmogonical look that shakes up the expected nature of time we take for granted and which defines us every day. Longed-for futures, lost pasts, presents to be dodged. And the solution, as well as where the solution is—if, indeed, there is a solution. The art work in II. Escapes: Fiction as Rigour creates worlds and yet also requires us to take the starting point into account: the economic system, the weight and meaning of objects, the footprint of language, the conscious construction of ourselves as public, medial characters.

Playing with reality to turn it on its head, searching for what cannot be found, enjoying a process that creates a constant separation from today’s harsh world. Yes, enjoying. The exhibition presents works and artists searching for shades and ways of finding other options to create flexible grammars that can also lead back to reality, if it were ever possible to escape from it. “Fiction as Rigour” means delving into serious work systems held in place by hazy goals. It is about shaping a message outside reality to turn it—for however long—into a different possible reality. And once it exists, believing it to be true, without any doubts, without any need to justify it.

II. Escapes: Fiction as Rigour is an exhibition that creates characters that don’t hide, where the future and fascinating flashes of childhood—which stay in one’s memory like cinematic stains—intertwine without any headaches. An exhibition where objects and images are fashioned through imaginaries that can be read in different ways. Findings, escapes, desires. Pieces for making stories, sounds for taking situations apart, snatched glances, transformations and speculations on reality. At the end of the day, reality is always keenly present in any escape.