Imperfect lovers. Exchanges, friction, attitudes around Felix Gonzalez-Torres in the Spanish context The Performance of Politics
“…Aesthetics are about politics, they are politics.” This statement by Felix Gonzalez-Torres can be read in the catalogue of the retrospective exhibition dedicated to him by the CGAC in 1995; a comprehensive tour of a body of work that was already partially known in Spain, where the artist had exhibited in 1991. At the end of 1992, Pepe Espaliú published “Portrait of an evicted artist,” in the El País newspaper, a text in which he would manifest a silenced homosexuality and speak of the disease AIDS, which would lead to his death. Gonzalez-Torres would die in 1996 of the same disease. Until that time, there were virtually no references to the possibility of an artist being homosexual in the Spanish context, and even fewer in the case of lesbians. Aesthetics should not be tainted by “private” experiences; there was no empathy for the wretchedness of “abnormality.” Art had to aspire to universality, which had to be removed from the particular, because what was personal was not aesthetic. But for Gonzalez-Torres, connoisseur of feminisms, the aesthetic was political and personal.
Cabello/Carceller have been working together since 1992. Trained in Fine Arts in Madrid, the city where they work and live, they are currently professors at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cuenca. Their work moves through different artistic disciplines, seeking to question hegemonic modes of representation and offer critical alternatives. Social construction of identity and sexual and gender policies are among their topics of interest. Through collaborative projects, they incorporate minoritized voices that reveal the paradoxes of the liberal production system and the life regime that it promotes. The idea of story and narration, language, thought and architecture are put at the service of social condemnation.
They have participated in the Venice Biennale (2015), the Bucharest Biennale (2010) and in Global Feminism (Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2007). Their individual exhibitions include, notably, those held at the MUAC in Mexico City (2019), CA2M in Madrid (2017), IVAM in Valencia (2016), or at Matadero Madrid (2011). They have also curated exhibitions and are the authors of various publications. Their work is found in collections such as the Reina Sofia National Art Centre Museum in Madrid, the “la Caixa” Foundation in Barcelona, the ARTIUM Museum in Vitoria, the CAAM in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the MACBA in Barcelona, among others.
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