Barcelona presentation of the video project by artist Carles Congost, awarded at the XXI Grants of the Fundación Botín. The Sonido Sabadell (Sabadell Sound) was a musical phenomenon that emerged in Catalonia during the 1980s, closely linked to Italo disco, a major dance music industry produced and distributed primarily from Italy. In an attempt to subvert the conventions of the music documentary, the video presents a series of symbolic interventions by various figures from Catalan culture, both contemporary and from the era in which this phenomenon took place. These interventions sketch an out-of-focus and unstable portrait of the ideals and aspirations of the context that fostered its creation and eventual demise. The video features a poet, Eduard Escoffet; a journalist, Ángel Casas; a musician, Josep Xortó; choreographers, Les Filles Föllen; and a comedian, ReEugenio.
http://carlescongost.blogspot.com.es/
Screening and presentation by the artist
+ Carles Congost in conversation with poet Eduard Escoffet, a member of the cast.
+ Sonido Sabadell DJ Set by Discos Paradiso.
Carles Congost (Olot, 1970) lives and works between Olot and Barcelona. His works alternate different media and formats such as video, music, photography, drawing and installation to articulate a complex and ironic discourse on art and its exchanges. His practice is characterised by a particular appeal to various subgenres of mass culture, through which he raises questions about the mechanisms of contemporary art. The uninhibited way in which he integrates diverse influences—such as pop music, comics, television, fantasy cinema and adolescent iconography—into his discourse, along with a very distinctive use of irony and humour, define a body of work marked by a demythologising spirit that breaks conventional hierarchies of expression.
He has held solo exhibitions at Espai 13/ Fundació Miró, Barcelona; Espacio Uno/ MNCARS, Madrid; Zona Emergente/ CAAC, Seville; Fundación Bilbao Arte, Bilbao; Centre d`Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona; CAC Málaga; CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts), Glasgow; Komplot, Brussels. He has participated in group shows at MARCO, Vigo; Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona; La Panera, Lleida; EACC, Castellón; CGAC, Santiago de Compostela; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; PS1 MOMA, New York; IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art), Dublin. He has been invited to develop site-specific projects for art fairs including ARCO’ 01, Madrid; Artissima’ 06, Turin and Frieze’ 08, London. His work is represented by galleries Joan Prats, Barcelona; Horrach Moyà, Palma de Mallorca and Artericambi, Verona (Italy).
ABANS DE LA CASA / An Unstable Biopic through the Sonido Sabadell (2015), HD Video, 22′ by Carles Congost