Fernando Snchez Castillo

Fernando Snchez Castillo

Mtodo del discurso

CAC MLAGA CENTRO DE ARTE CONTEMPORNEO DE MLAGA

4 FEBRERO - 3 ABRIL 2011 4 FEBRUARY - 3 APRIL 2011

AYUNTAMIENTO DE MLAGA Francisco de la Torre Prados Alcalde Miguel Briones Delegado de Cultura Jos scar Carrascosa Director General de Cultura, Educacin y Fiestas Javier Ferrer Gerente Mara Teresa Barrau Secretaria de la Comisin

CAC MLAGA Fernando Francs Director M Jos Garca Gerencia Alicia Bustamante Administracin Almudena Bocanegra Adjunta Direccin Inmaculada Naranjo Asistente Gerencia Helena Juncosa Covadonga Hernndez Exposiciones

ndice/Contents
Presentaciones / Foreword
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Mtodo del Discurso / Method of the Speech JUAN BOTELLA Obras en exposicin / Works in exhibition

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EXPOSICIN Fernando Francs Comisario Helena Juncosa Covadonga Hernndez Gestin Cultural y Comunicacin, S. L. Organizacin y Coordinacin Victoria Ruiz Oana Stroe Actividades Culturales Elena Padrn Alberto Ricca Mercedes Almagro Comunicacin e Imagen Ins Fernndez Pilar Daz Celia Garca Actividades Pedaggicas TDM. Transportes y Montajes de Arte, S. L. Transporte Ferrer & Ojeda Asociados Seguro Mihail E. Plesanu Fernando Sarria Montaje

CATLOGO Fernando Francs Juan Botella Textos Alberto Ricca Diseo Laura E. Suffield Traduccin Jos Lus Gutirrez Fotografa Imprenta Cervantina, S. L. Impresin ISBN: 978-84-96159-93-8 Depsito Legal: MA-115-2011 de las obras, Fernando Snchez Castillo de los textos, sus autores de la edicin, Gestin Cultural y Comunicacin, S. L. CAC Mlaga AGRADECIMIENTOS Galera Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid Direccin General de la Guardia Civil Jefatura de Unidades Especiales y de Reserva Servicio de Desactivacin de Explosivos y Defensa NRDQ Guardia Civil - Comandancia de Mlaga - GEDEX Guardia Civil - Comandancia de Granada GEDEX Fundicin Capa Miuras 41&57 Jan Hoet Juan Botella Prof. Dr. Alfonso Garca Cerezo Cristina Lucas Ral Silva Liao Nacho Calles Frank Lehmann Carlos Sanz Federico Lozano Nuestro agradecimiento muy especial a Fernando Snchez Castillo sin cuyo apoyo, implicacin y entusiasmo esta exposicin no hubiera sido posible

Lista de Obras / List of Works

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Currculum / Curriculum

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Francisco de la Torre Prados | Alcalde de Mlaga

Fernando Snchez Castillo presenta Mtodo del discurso, una serie de videos y esculturas que se expondrn durante dos meses en el Espacio 2 del CAC Mlaga. Snchez Castillo es uno de los artistas espaoles con mayor proyeccin internacional. Aunque sus inicios estn marcados por la produccin pictrica, hoy da es conocido por sus intervenciones pblicas, sus esculturas y sus vdeos, con los que reflexiona sobre la relacin entre arte y poder. Artista implicado y comprometido, defiende la necesidad de reflexionar sobre el pasado para tratar de entender la riqueza del presente y, sobre todo, para cerrar captulos de nuestra historia que han marcado a generaciones pasadas y que, en muchos casos, continan condicionando la vida de muchas de ellas. Mlaga, gracias a exposiciones como sta, demuestra su inters por convertirse en referente del mundo artstico y hacer de la cultura uno de los pilares de desarrollo para construir la ciudad del futuro. Por dicha razn, animo a malagueos y forneos a visitar esta nueva propuesta del CAC Mlaga que da a da trabaja para alcanzar un mismo objetivo comn: acercar la creacin contempornea a todos los ciudadanos y convertir la ciudad en referente en el circuito artstico internacional.

Francisco de la Torre Prados | Alcalde de Mlaga

Fernando Snchez Castillo is presenting Method of Discourse, a series of videos and sculptures to be
shown for two months in Espacio 2 at the CAC Mlaga. Among Spanish artists, Snchez Castillo has one of the highest international profiles. While his early work focused on painting, he is now known for his public interventions, sculptures and videos, which he uses to analyse the relationship between art and power. A socially committed artist, he defends the need to reflect on the past in order to try to understand the rich complexity of the present, and above all to finally resolve and close chapters of Spanish history that have marked previous generations and which in many cases continue to affect the lives of those concerned. Through exhibitions such as the present one, Malaga is once again demonstrating its desire to become a focal point in the international art world and to make culture one of the key axes in the citys ongoing development. With this aim in mind, I would like to encourage all residents and visitors to see this exhibition project presented by the CAC Mlaga, an institution that continually strives to achieve our shared goal: that of bringing contemporary art to the public and of making the city a reference point on the international art circuit.

Fernando Francs | Director del CAC Mlaga

La exposicin de Fernando Snchez Castillo en el CAC Mlaga lleva por ttulo Mtodo del discurso, en referencia
a la obra escrita en 1637 por el filsofo francs Ren Descartes y que lo consagr como el fundador del Racionalismo. Este escrito planteaba el mtodo para alcanzar el conocimiento verdadero y apuntaba la necesidad de reformar el entendimiento (de ah, Pienso, luego existo, su formulacin ms conocida). La eleccin del ttulo de la exposicin no ha podido ser ms acertada ya que, si Descartes alentaba la investigacin libre basada en las bondades de la geometra y el lgebra pero sin sus inconvenientes, Snchez Castillo hace lo propio con el arte contemporneo: el proceso creativo como herramienta para incidir en momentos oscuros de la historia de Espaa en los que no se ha querido ahondar. De la misma forma que Descartes criticaba los argumentos de la tradicin escolstica que se enseaba en las universidades del s. XVII, Fernando Snchez Castillo rechaza la idea de que la creacin contempornea sea formalista y neutra, el arte como vehculo para denunciar el inmovilismo del poder, pero sin caer en la propaganda. La capacidad de anlisis y crtica de los individuos frente al discurso poltico. A travs de la escultura, las intervenciones urbanas, el dibujo y el video, Snchez Castillo investiga en la relacin entre arte y poder, con claras alusiones a la memoria histrica para denunciar la existencia de determinados smbolos que an perduran en nuestra sociedad. Su trabajo se mueve en el terreno conceptual; los monumentos pblicos, la iconografa militar y los emblemas como herramientas para desenterrar el pasado reciente de la historia de Espaa.

Mtodo del discurso llega al Espacio 2 del CAC Mlaga para ofrecer al espectador una serie de videoinstalaciones cuya pieza principal, unas esculturas constructivistas desarrolladas con la ayuda de robots desactivadores de explosivos, ha sido diseada especficamente por el artista para esta sala. Es la primera vez que Fernando Snchez Castillo cuenta con la colaboracin de la Guardia Civil para uno de sus trabajos. Snchez Castillo es uno de los artistas espaoles ms valorados internacionalmente y cuya trayectoria profesional ha ascendido de manera meterica. Su estilo atrevido y transgresor, arriesgado en muchas ocasiones, fomenta en el espectador un ejercicio intelectual que, a travs del arte contemporneo, le hace plantearse cuestiones sobre acontecimientos y temas ya pasados, aunque no cerrados. Quisiera agradecer el trabajo de todas las personas implicadas en la organizacin de la exposicin y en la elaboracin del catlogo, as como nuestra gratitud a Fernando Snchez Castillo y, especialmente, al Grupo Especialista de Desactivacin de Explosivos de la Guardia Civil (GEDEX) por su colaboracin en este proyecto del CAC Mlaga.

Fernando Francs | Director of CAC Mlaga

The exhibition devoted to Fernando Snchez Castillo at the CAC Mlaga is entitled Method of Discourse
in reference to Descartes work of 1637 that made him the founding figure of Rationalism. Descartes text proposed the method of achieving true knowledge and pointed to the necessity to reformulate consciousness (hence his most celebrated words, the phrase I think therefore I am). The choice of the title for the present exhibition could not be more apt: just as Descartes encouraged free investigation based on the merits of geometry and algebra but without their defects, Snchez Castillo does the same with contemporary art, using the creative process as a tool to focus on the darkest moments of Spanish history which few have wished to investigate to date. In the same way that Descartes criticised the arguments of the scholastic tradition taught in 17th-century universities, Fernando Snchez Castillo rejects the idea that contemporary creation should be formalist and neutral in favour of art as a vehicle for denouncing the entrenched immobility of power, albeit without falling into propaganda. He upholds individuals capacity for analysis and criticism when confronted with political discourse. Through sculptures, urban interventions, drawing and video, Snchez Castillo investigates the relationship between art and power, making clear references to historical memory in order to denounce the existence of specific symbols that still survive in contemporary society. His work moves in the terrain of the conceptual; for the artist, public monuments, military iconography and emblems are all tools for excavating Spains recent history.

Method of Discourse is now to be seen at the Espacio 2 of the CAC Mlaga. It features a series of video installations of which the most important, a group of constructivist sculptures made with the help of robots normally used to deactivate explosives, has been specially designed for this space. This is the first time that Snchez Castillo has worked with the Guardia Civil on one of his pieces. Fernando Snchez Castillo is one of the most critically renowned Spanish artists on an international level and has enjoyed meteoric professional success. His daring, transgressive style with its frequent use of risk encourages the viewer to engage in an intellectual exercise that uses contemporary art to raise questions about events and issues that took place in the past but which are still not fully resolved. I would like to thank all those involved in the organisation of the exhibition and the production of the catalogue. Thanks are also due to the artist, Fernando Snchez Castillo, and, in particular, to the Grupo Especialista de Desactivacin de Explosivos of the Guardia Civil (GEDEX) for its participation in this project at the CAC Mlaga.

Mtodo del discurso Method of Discourse

Juan Botella

Cuando Descartes se enfrent a la decisin de

publicar sus reflexiones filosficas tuvo miedo de que no resultaran del agrado de la jerarqua eclesistica y le ocasionaran una sentencia como la que haba condenado un tiempo antes a Galileo. Por eso, titul su obra como Discurso del mtodo y no Tratado del mtodo, como hubiera sido lgico. Su intencin al sustituir la palabra Tratado por Discurso era evitar que nadie le acusara de estar imponiendo un sistema de pensamiento que cambiaba el existente hasta la fecha. La palabra discurso le permita alegar que, al fin y al cabo, no se trataba ms que de una charla, un hablar que no pretenda dictar sentencia ni establecerse como saber. Sin embargo, paradojas de la vida, la obra termin por imponerse como la base del sistema de pensamiento con el que la civilizacin occidental se ha desarrollado a lo largo de toda la Modernidad, y su ttulo original, Discurso del mtodo para conducir

When deciding on the publication of his philosophical reflections, Descartes was nervous that they would not be positively received by the ecclesiastical authorities and would earn him a sentence similar to the one to which Galileo had been condemned years before. Descartes therefore decided to entitle his text Discourse on Method rather than Treatise on

Method, as the word Discourse meant that he could

not be accused of imposing a system of thought that would in any way modify the existing one. By using the term Discourse he could argue that his text was in fact no more than a chat or informal conversation, devoid of any intent to dictate dogma or to set itself up as given knowledge. Nonetheless, in one of lifes paradoxes, Descartes work ultimately became the basis of the system of thought underlying the development of western civilization over the course of the modern age, and its original title, Discours de la mthode pour bien

bien la propia razn y buscar la verdad en las ciencias, contiene ya los elementos claves de una forma
de relacionarse con el mundo que pervirti la existente hasta entonces. La razn y la verdad gobernaron en adelante un mtodo que necesariamente deba desembocar en un saber evidente. Que ahora venga Fernando Snchez Castillo a titular su exposicin Mtodo del discurso no deja de

conduire sa raison, et chercher la vrit dans les sciences [Discourse on the method for guiding ones
reason and searching for truth in the sciences], contains within it the key elements for establishing a way of relating to the world that overturned the previously existing one. From then on, reason and truth steered a method that would necessarily bring about wisdom and knowledge.

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ser una estrategia similar a la realizada por Descartes cuando public sus reflexiones. Hay en ese ttulo una alteracin nada inocente de los trminos, un cambio del orden en el que ninguno de ellos conserva la significacin original, aquella que qued rotundamente establecida a partir de Descartes. Miedo? puede ser esa la razn para este juego de palabras en el que se subvierte el orden? existe hoy en da algn riesgo de excomunin a causa de la presentacin de unas obras de arte que digan la verdad? No hay miedo en el artista sino consciencia de la necesidad de una estrategia del decir contemporneo cuando el que habla lo hace desde dentro. No en vano, ni el mtodo es lo que era, ni el discurso tampoco. Nietzsche y gran parte del pensamiento posterior a l se encargaron de ponerlos en cuestin., de manera que ya no creemos en la verdad ni en un saber total. Pocas son nuestras certezas, si es que nos queda alguna. El progreso nos ha defraudado. El siglo XX dio suficientes pruebas de que en l haba fallas. Discurso y mtodo en la obra de Fernando Snchez Castillo tiene ms que ver con el juego y la irona que con la verdad; esta es su estrategia: jugar con aquello que se ha establecido dentro un orden naturalizado para mostrar, con humor, que las cosas pueden ser de otra manera, que, al fin y al cabo, el progreso tcnico-cientfico desarrollado puede y debe

The fact that Fernando Snchez Castillo has now entitled his exhibition Method of Discourse can be considered a strategy similar to the one employed by Descartes when he published his reflections. The title involves a deliberate alteration of the words and a change in their order so that none retains its original meaning; the one that was so firmly established from Descartes onwards. Fear? Could this be the reason for this play of words in which the order is subverted? In the present day is there any risk of excommunication from exhibiting works of art that speak the truth? Rather than experiencing fear, the artist is aware of the need for a strategy of contemporary speech when the person speaking is doing so from within. It is not by chance that neither the method nor the discourse are what they used to be. Nietzsche and most subsequent thinkers devoted their activities to calling them both into question, as a result of which we no longer believe in truth or in total knowledge. We have few, if any, certainties. Progress has disappointed us. The 20th century offered sufficient proof that it contained flaws. Discourse and method in the work of Fernando Snchez Castillo relate more closely to play and irony than to truth. This is his strategy: playing with what has been pre-established within a naturalised order with the aim of humorously showing that things can

colocarse al servicio de la humanidad. Invertir su uso es una manera de hacerlo, jugar con sus productos es una forma de pervertirlos, de alterar un orden no por asumido siempre deseado. Y el arte es un buen campo desde el que hacerlo, pues a l se le permite (o l se permite) decir lo que no es posible desde otros mbitos. Esto, que alguien puede considerar un privilegio, es tambin un riesgo, porque la separacin entre el arte y el resto de los mbitos vitales puede desembocar en una desactivacin de lo dicho. La excesiva institucionalizacin del arte acarrea una prdida de su capacidad activadora, que slo desde la potencia del propio arte puede restituirse. Hoy en da se necesita mucho arte para que el arte se oiga, para que lo dicho por l no se pierda en el ruido meditico. Mucho arte se refiere aqu al poder del arte, la capacidad de volver a activar lo que la institucin tiende a desactivar. Nos encontramos as ante un autntico juego de poderes: el del arte contra el del orden institucionalizado; cada uno con sus estrategias. El juego y la irona le corresponden al arte. Y no nos engaemos, el juego es cosa seria que exige la libertad de los jugadores y que se practica en razn de la

be different and that, ultimately, technical and scientific progress can and should place itself at the service of humanity. Inverting their use is one way of doing this, while playing with the resulting products of this progress is a way of perverting them, of modifying an order that is not always a desired one even though we have accepted it. Art is a good field in which to do this, as it allows the artist (or he allows himself) to say what cannot be said from within other areas. This might be considered a privilege, but it is also a risk, as the separation of art from the other fields of life may result in the deactivation of what the artist has said. The excessive institutionalisation of art results in a loss of its capacity to activate, which can only be given back to it via the potency of art itself. In the present day a great deal of art is needed if it is to be heard and if what it has said is not to be lost among media-generated noise. In this sense, much of art refers to the power of art and to its capacity to re-activate what the institution tends to deactivate. We thus find ourselves in the presence of a real power game: that of the power of art against institutionalised order, each side with its own strategies. Play and irony are on the side of art. Let us not deceive ourselves, the game is a serious thing that requires the players to be free and which is played for the satisfaction of playing it.1

satisfaccin de su misma prctica.1

El juego no se impone, en l se entra libremente, lo que ya implica una diferencia con el orden institucionalizado, en el que estamos obligados a participar.

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Play does not impose itself; one enters into it freely, a fact that already represents a difference from institutionalised order, in which we are obliged to participate. If only for this, play is an opposition to power and a medium perfectly suited for art, allowing it its corresponding freedom; freedom to introduce a different order, one that provokes chaos in hyperrational society. It is true that play exhausts its course and its meaning from inside itself 2 but precisely for this reason and because it seems isolated from other life situations considered serious, play can allow itself a degree of fantasy that would rarely be possible otherwise. It has always been said that art and play are useless, but that uselessness is their power, their rebelliousness, their potential to Ya solo por eso, el juego es una oposicin al poder, un medio perfectamente adecuado para el arte, al que permite la libertad que le corresponde; la libertad de introducir un orden diferente, un orden que prooffer a different order; fantastical if you will, but marking the start of new possibilities. This strategy of play and irony has been present since the outset of Fernando Snchez Castillos artistic career. His first individual exhibition already included a series of machines that circulated within the exhibition space through movements generated by motors taken from childrens toys. One spouted fire and threatened everybody that came near it, while others took the form of assemblages of objects similar to barricades that only changed their course or direction if objects were placed in their paths. These de presentar un orden distinto; fantstico si se quiere, pero principio de posibilidad. Esta estrategia de juego e irona viene ya desde el inicio de la carrera artstica de Fernando Snchez Castillo. En su primera exposicin individual ya inclua una serie de mquinas que se desplazaban por el recinto en movimientos generados por motores obtenidos a partir de juguetes infantiles. Una echaba fuego y amenazaba a todo lo que le hiciera frente, otras eran acumulaciones objetuales similares a barricadas que slo modificaban su rumbo ante la existencia de obstculos que les impidieran el paso. Esas mquinas realizaban automovimientos que no tendan hacia un machines made auto-movements that had no final purpose or goal, but simply that of movement as movement, pointing, one might say, to a phenomenon of excess, to the self-representation of the living being. 3 Lacking movement but also related to childrens games were a series of architectural models of constructions put up during the Spanish Civil War to protect monuments from bombings. They

voca el caos en la sociedad hiperracional. Es verdad

que el juego agota su curso y su sentido dentro de s

mismo 2 pero precisamente por ello, porque parece

aislado de los contextos vitales entendidos como serios, el juego se puede permitir una fantasa que de otra manera raramente le sera posible. Arte y juego son intiles, siempre se ha dicho. Pero esa inutilidad es su poder, su insumisin, su posibilidad
L. A. clockwise, 2002

final o una meta, sino al movimiento en cuanto movimiento, que indica, por as decirlo, un fenmeno de exceso, de la autorepresentacin del ser viviente 3.
Sin movimiento, pero tambin relacionada con el juego infantil, se presenta toda la serie de maquetas arquitectnicas de las construcciones realizadas en
Barricades, 1998

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complejas operaciones de salvamento ante la inminencia de su destruccin. Curiosamente, no son pocos los casos en los que la propia construccin protectora resulta ms bella que el monumento que trataba de preservar, generando un paisaje ya desaparecido y del que casi ninguna noticia tenamos los ciudadanos actuales. Toda esta serie de maquetas es especialmente valorada por el propio artista, acaso por la perla Guerra Civil para proteger los monumentos de la destruccin de las bombas. Son piezas muy formales que atienden a la propia formalidad arquitectnica y que enlazan perfectamente con la pasin constructiva del artista, quien ya realiz algunas de sus primeras obras, Simulador de Explosiones entre ellas, en una esttica constructivista muy determinada. Pero tambin enlazan con su preocupacin por lo pblico que estar presente a lo largo de todo su trabajo. Cmo el espacio pblico se construye desde instancias que lo determinan e imponen una relacin con la Historia en la que el monumento conmemorativo puede resultar ms importante que los propios ciudadanos. stos pueden matarse entre ellos, pero los personajes que sirven de ejemplo de comportamiento, los que se usan para establecer pautas modlicas, han de protegerse. Se trata, por tanto, de un proyecto que gira alrededor del arte utilizado como propaganda, de su valor para un poder que es capaz e organizar
La Cibeles, 1937

imminent destruction. Interestingly, we encounter numerous cases in which the protective construction is more beautiful than the monument that it was made to protect, resulting in a now lost landscape about which those of us living now have almost no information. This whole series of architectural models is particularly important to Snchez Castillo himself, possibly due to the art worlds perplexed reaction to the project, which the artist himself terms his hobby. Without doubt it is also important to him because he has an extremely close relationship with his father who lives near the statue of Cibeles in Madrid and first saw it in its covered-up state. Snchez Castillos father told him that as a child he used to go and play with the sand that had spilled out of the bags piled up to protect the statue. It was only on the last day of the war that he saw its face for the first time when it was uncovered. Snchez Castillo has subsequently defended the playful character of his art in various texts and interviews, emphasising the connection established by Gadamer, who proposed play, symbol and collective celebration as anthropological bases of our experience of art. It is thus not surprising that Snchez Castillo has made signs in lights of the type found in popular street festivals, borrowing the way coloured light bulbs are used to announce raffles or express greetings or

are markedly formal pieces of an architectural nature and can be closely associated with the passion for construction manifested by Snchez Castillo, who made some of his earliest works, including Explosion

plejidad del mundillo del arte ante este proyecto al que el mismo artista llama su hobby, pero sin duda tambin porque mantiene una intensa relacin con su padre, quien, viviendo cerca de La Cibeles madrilea, la conoci antes cubierta que libre. All, segn cont a su hijo, bajaba l de nio a jugar con la arena desprendida de los sacos terreros que la protegan. Slo el ltimo da de la guerra, cuando la descubrieron, pudo ver por primera vez su rostro. Posteriormente, el propio artista ha reivindicado el carcter ldico de su arte en diversos textos y entrevistas, enfatizando esa ligazn establecida por Gadamer cuando propone al juego, al smbolo y la fiesta como bases antropolgicas de nuestra experiencia del arte. Por eso no extraa que haya realizado carteles verbeneros, Street Lights en los que se apropiaba de los medios tradicionales de anunciar las tmbolas o de desear felicidad en las fiestas populares mediante textos realizados con bombillas iluminadas.

Simulator, using a specifically constructivist aesthetic.

These works also relate to the artists concern for the public realm, a concern to be found throughout his entire oeuvre. How, for example, public space is constructed by institutions of power that determine it and impose a relationship with History in which the commemorative monument may end up being more important than the citizens themselves. These citizens may kill each other, but the individuals who are presented as models of behaviour, those who are used to establish ideal modes of conduct, have to be protected. What we have, then, is a project that focuses around art used as propaganda and its value for a power establishment that is capable of organising complex rescue operations in the face of its own
La Cibeles, 2006, maqueta escala / model scale 1/18

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 Medidas / Measures Felipe IV

Fuente de Neptuno, 2007

Part de la peur, 2007. Centre Dart Contemporain Geneve. Vistas del proyecto / Project views Monumentos protegidos

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Medidas / Measures Felipe III

Felipe III , 2007

El mensaje ahora, en cambio, era radicalmente otro.

congratulations, but now consisting of phrases that offer a message of a very different type: Tremblez

Tremblez tyrans, ne travaillez jamais, nous sommes tous indesirables, abajo la inteligencia, Forget the dog, beware the owner, La calle es ma etc no ofrecen
dudas si uno conoce la procedencia de unas frases que estn ligadas normalmente a acontecimientos histricos que dejaron una honda huella. Su reaparicin un tiempo despus en lugares y formas distintos a los originales no hace sino recordarnos la capacidad de la sociedad contempornea para incorporar los acontecimientos histricos de una manera esttica, desactivando as un mensaje que con frecuencia tena pretensiones revolucionarias, un mensaje cuya realizacin ya nadie cree posible y que slo permanece en forma de acto esttico. En el ao 2000 transform el Jeep que utilizaba en sus desplazamientos por la ciudad de Los ngeles, en la que entonces resida, en una especie de vehculo blindado mediante una construccin en madera que otorgaba al coche un aspecto muy diferente del

tyrans, ne travaillez jamais, nous sommes tous indesirables, abajo la intelligencia, Forget the dog, beware the owner, La calle es ma, etc. For anyone
familiar with the origins of these phrases, which are in the main associated with historical events of far reaching consequences, there is no room for doubt. Their subsequent reappearance in a different place and form serves to remind us of contemporary societys ability to assimilate historical events in an aesthetic manner, thus deactivating a message that frequently had revolutionary intentions and one whose realisation no one now believes possible and which only survives in the form of an art act. In 2000, Snchez Castillo transformed the jeep that he was using to get around Los Angeles (where he lived at that time) into a sort of armoured vehicle through a wooden construction that gave the car a very different appearance to its original one. What was originally designed for driving around in, open original. Lo que estaba diseado para transitar a pecho descubierto, recibiendo el aire y el sol californianos, acab siendo Emergency Observer, un vehculo casi ridculo en su cerrazn con el que el artista se desplazaba protegido y guiado por cmaras de vdeo. Con l entr en algunos templos del arte, como el Palacio de Bellas Artes de Pars o las escaleras de la sala de exposiciones de la Comunidad de Madrid. Esa alteracin del uso, ya propuesta por Marcel Duchamp a principios del siglo XX, cuando descontextualiz el urinario y lo introdujo en las salas del museo, o unos aos antes, cuando uni una rueda de bicicleta con un taburete, es un gesto habitual en Fernando Snchez Castillo. Con l se busca pervertir lo establecido y, como un nio cuando usa una escoba para volar o hace un coche de un taco de madera, proponer un uso nuevo a aquello que aparece social to the elements and the Californian light and sun, ended up as Emergency Observer, an almost absurdly hermetic vehicle in which Snchez Castillo moved around, protected and guided by video cameras. He used it to enter various temples of art, such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and mounted the stairs of the Regional Government of Madrids exhibition space. This modification of use, deployed by Marcel Duchamp as early as the start of the 20th century when he de-contextualised the urinal and introduced it into the museum, or again, some years earlier, when he combined a bicycle wheel with a kitchen stool, is habitual in Fernando Snchez Castillos work. He uses
Emergency observer, Chinatown, Los ngeles, 1999

Nous sommess tous indesirables, 2006

La calle es ma MARCO Vigo,

Emergency observer, Paris Palais, 1999

Coleccin / Collection MUDAM, Luxemburgo

Museo de Arte Contemporneo de Vigo, 2008

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y polticamente solidificado. Y lo hace disfrutando enormemente, divirtindose con cada hallazgo, manifestando una sonrisa perversa cuando relata una nueva ocurrencia, un deseo de hacer una nueva obra. Esa sonrisa delata su consciencia de la dificultad, de las consecuencias posibles de las alteraciones que quiere llevar a cabo. Pero su satisfaccin le hace acometer proyectos que cualquiera considerara utpicos, imposibles. Algunos lo han sido, como su empeo en utilizar una estatua ecuestre de Franco en Santander para hacrsela conocer a un grupo de ciegos. Santander era la ltima capital de provincia espaola que mantena una estatua de Franco en la Plaza del Ayuntamiento, la nica que no haba eliminado los restos del rgimen anterior. Este proyecto, titulado

it to pervert the established, and, as a child uses a broom to fly with or makes a car from a small piece of wood, proposes a new use for something that seems socially and politically solidified or stuck. Furthermore, he takes great pleasure in doing so, having fun with each new discovery, smiling perversely when relating a new idea or expressing a wish to make a new work. This smile is an indication of his awareness of the difficulty involved and of the possible consequences of the alterations that he wishes to undertake. However, personal satisfaction leads him to undertake projects that anyone else would consider utopian and impossible. Some have indeed been so, such as his determination to introduce a group of blind people to the equestrian statue of Franco in Santander. Santander was the last provincial capital in Spain still to have a statue of Franco in its main square in front of the town hall, and the only one not to have got rid of this vestige of the previous regime. Snchez Castillos project, entitled Tcita, was finally carried out, albeit in a different way, and was exhibited in conjunction with PhotoEspaa 2010 in the Crculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Finally, blind people had the same opportunity to become acquainted with the symbols that fill our cities and which act as reminders of significant figures who should not be forgotten. The project was an urgent mbito pblico, en los almacenes en los que esos smbolos del periodo franquista han quedado arrumbados. All acudieron los ciegos. El espacio pblico no parece ser para ellos, como si no fueran ciudadanos. As justificaba el autor su propuesta: Somos tione; Franco was disappearing from Spain and blind people would not have the chance to find out how he had been depicted, simply because they do not use the sense of sight, which is the sense most used by the institutions of power to propagate their symbolism. Snchez Castillos project took place out of the public realm, in the storerooms and basements where the symbols of the Franco era had ended up in a heap. There they were visited by blind people. The public realm does not seem to be for the blind, as if they are somehow not citizens. The artist explained his idea in these terms: We are tyrannical heirs of the Renaissance theories on the primacy of vision as a method of knowledge. In the last century, film, television and most recently Internet have been the triumphal confirmation of the hegemonic western viewpoint. In his defence of vision, Leonardo did not count on the fact that at the end of the cognitive visual experience, a slight brush or touch is necessary,
Tctica, Mallorca. Espai Quatre,

rnicos herederos de las teoras renacentistas sobre la primaca de la visin como mtodo de conocimiento. El cine, la televisin y finalmente Internet han sido la confirmacin apotesica del hegemnico punto de vista occidental en el siglo pasado. Leonardo, en su defensa de la visin no cont con que al final de la experiencia visual cognitiva era necesario un roce leve, el que nos confirma la existencia de lo visto. Sus obras, en una irnica venganza, son las que ms han de ser protegidas del deseo de ser vistas y , por supuesto, tocadas. En la misma exposicin haba tambin una pieza llamada Intocable. Consista en una cabeza de Franco que giraba alrededor de su propio eje a gran velocidad, a tanta que
Tctica, Barcelona, PHotoEspaa, 2010

Tctica, termin por realizarse al fin, aunque de manera diferente, y se expuso con motivo de PhotoEspaa 2010 en el Crculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid. Por fin, los ciegos tenan la misma oportunidad de conocer los smbolos que pueblan nuestras ciudades y actan de recordatorio de figuras seeras a las que no deberamos olvidar. El proyecto era urgente; Franco estaba desapareciendo de Espaa y los ciegos se iban a quedar, simplemente porque no disponen del sentido que ms utiliza el poder para extender su simbologa, la vista, sin conocer cmo se le haba representado. El proyecto se llev a cabo fuera del

Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca, 2010

28 29

su figura se tornaba indiscernible. El dictador ya no era accesible tampoco para la vista, como lo prueba el hecho de que el artista haya intentado establecer un lista detallada de los lugares en los que ahora se encuentran las estatuas retiradas sin conseguirlo. Muchas fueron, por ejemplo, las gestiones para averiguar dnde se halla actualmente la de Barcelona, sin que el empeo le condujera a ninguna parte, lo que no habla precisamente bien del nivel democrtico de determinadas instituciones. En casi todos los proyectos ha tenido dificultades que salvar, solicitudes que enviar, permisos que negociar, excepto en la parte fotogrfica de Ciudad sin

confirming the existence of what has been seen. In a process of ironic revenge, his works are the ones that have been most protected against the desire to be looked at and, of course, touched. The same exhibition included a work entitled Untouchable. It comprised a head of Franco that turned on its own axis at great speed so that the face became indiscernible. The dictator was no longer accessible even to vision, as demonstrated by the fact that in conjunction with this work, Snchez Castillo had also attempted to draw up a detailed list of the places where statues of him were still to be found, but without success. He made lengthy attempts to find out where the one in Barcelona is now but with absolutely no result, a fact that does not exactly speak well of the level of democracy in some Spanish institutions. Almost all his projects have involved resolving problems, sending requests and soliciting permissions, with the exception of the photographic part of City

hizo, ahora mediante una simulacin en bronce, con los Leones de las Cortes y con el Cascorro del Rastro. Fue especialmente significativa su exposicin en La Casa Encendida de Madrid en la que mostr a los Leones de las Cortes, cortados a la altura de las patas, en dos pedestales que ocupaban el centro de una sala por cuyo permetro se desplazaba un tren elctrico con vagones de hierro. El juego era claro: esos leones, que haban sido fundidos con las armas arrebatadas al enemigo en la Guerra de Marruecos, ahora alguien los haba transformado en un juguete infantil. Ya no guardaban la entrada del palacio legislativo, no atemorizaban a nadie, ya no se mostraban como botn de guerra transformado en trofeo; su nuevo uso era ldico, y mostraba cmo las armas de un pueblo pueden ser utilizadas como decoracin por otro vencedor. Felipe IV, por su parte, apareci despiezado, desmontado dice l, en la esquina de las calles Alcal y Gran Va de Madrid, como si alguien

without Heroes, in which modern photographic

techniques allowed Snchez Castillo to depict different monuments as if they had been stolen. He did this with the statues of Philip IV in the Plaza Mayor, Charles III in the Puerta del Sol, and Franco in the Nuevos Ministerios area, all in Madrid. He also did it, although this time with a bronze replica, with the Lions located in front of the Spanish Parliament and with the statue of Eloy Gonzalo in the Plaza del Cascorro in the Rastro. Particularly important was Snchez Castillos exhibition held at La Casa Encendida in Madrid in which he showed the Lions from the Parliament building, now cut off at the level of their legs and installed on two pedestals that occupied the centre of a gallery, around the edge of which ran an electric train with iron carriages. The play of meaning was an obvious one: the lions, which had been cast from weapons seized from the enemy during the Moroccan War, had now been transformed by someone into a childs toy. They no longer guarded the entry to the legislative building or frightened anyone, nor were they on display as the booty of war transformed into a trophy. Their new function was a playful one and showed the way in which the arms of a people could be used as decoration by another victor. Philip IV was presented as broken up or disassembled, in the artists words, on the corner of calle Alcal and the Gran Va

hroes, en el que las modernas tcnicas de la fotografa le permitieron representar diversos monumentos como si hubieran sido robados. Lo hizo con la estatua de Felipe IV de la Plaza de Oriente de Madrid, la de Carlos III de la Puerta del Sol o con la de Franco de los Nuevos Ministerios. Pero tambin lo

Felipe III, 2000

Anamnesis, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2003

Prespectiva ciudadana, Madrid Abierto, 2003

30

31

lo hubiera robado de su altsimo pedestal en la Plaza Mayor y lo hubiera arrojado en esa esquina despus de haberlo destrozado. Esta pieza, titulada Perspec-

in Madrid, as if someone had stolen him off his high pedestal in the Plaza Mayor and had thrown him into that corner having first completely destroyed him. This work, entitled Civic Viewpoint, was an exercise in unmasking a figure of power in order to relocate him, conceptually speaking, at ground level, at the level of normal people walking along, given that Snchez Castillo considers that the physical elevation of public statutes relates to the way that the figures depicted have been installed, with pedagogical criteria, by the representatives of power. In addition, the ground level position that the statue occupies after the artistic act of its demolition emphasises the empty space that it inhabited. Snchez Castillos response in an interview with Jimena Blzquez clearly illustrates his artistic approach: The process of art acts like the stomach of a ruminant. It takes what is most sterile and unnoticed, regurgitates it and prepares it for a new process of digestion, if not the final one. This is Snchez Castillos manner of proceeding: looking among the stories that History has passed down to us and playing with them, transforming them into a new situation that alters the previous one and which questions the way in which it has been constructed. This is because everything starts from the assumption that History is a construction that imposes itself on us like a necessity,

una situacin construida, un momento de la vida

a construction in which specific elements have been used and others that would have given it a different shape have been left out. Seen in this light, History is a constructed situation, a moment of life specifically and deliberately constructed for the collective organisation of a unitary environment and a game of events. This definition, offered by the Situationist movement that first appeared in the 1950s, implies that anyone can construct a new situation and that events can be seen from a different angle in order to find out what their final result was. Their historical revision, which has so often been related to historical memory, is not so much concerned to change what has happened as to emphasise present-day conformity with the vision being transmitted. For this reason, Snchez Castillo commented to Javier Tudela that he is, less interested in a revision of memory than in a revision of the collective psyche. Franco up and

construido concreta y deliberadamente para la organizacin colectiva de un ambiente unitario y de un juego de acontecimientos. Esta definicin, que
corresponde al movimiento Situacionista desarrollado a partir de la dcada de los 50 del siglo pasado, implica que cualquiera puede construir una nueva situacin, que es posible que los acontecimientos puedan enfocarse de manera distinta para comprobar cul es el resultado actual. Su revisin histrica, eso que tantas veces se ha llamado relacin con la memoria histrica, no tendra tanto inters en cambiar lo ocurrido como en destacar la conformidad actual con la visin transmitida. Por eso le dijo l a Javier Tudela que est menos interesado en una revisin

tiva ciudadana, era un ejercicio de desencaramar a

una figura del poder para ponerla pie a tierra, a la altura de los ciudadanos que transitan por la calle, pues entiende el artista que la elevacin de las estatuas pblicas est relacionada con la imposicin, con criterios pedaggicos por parte del poder, de las figuras representadas. Adems, la disposicin terrenal que presenta la estatua tras el acto artstico de su derribo exhibe el vaco que la habita. La respuesta del artista en una entrevista con Jimena Blzquez ilustra con claridad su aproximacin artstica: El proceso del arte acta como el estmago

de un rumiante. Toma lo ms estril y desapercibido, lo regurgita y lo prepara para un nuevo proceso de digestin, que no el ltimo. Esa es su forma de actuar,
buscar entre las historias que la Historia nos ha dejado y juguetear con ellas, transformndolas en una nueva situacin que altera la previa, que pone en cuestin la manera en la que ha sido construida. Porque todo parte de la asuncin de que la Historia es una construccin que se nos impone como una necesidad, una construccin para la que se han empleado determinados elementos y dejado de lado otros que le daran una forma diferente. La Historia sera

de la memoria que en una revisin de la psique colectiva. Franco up and down es una magnfica oportunidad para comprobar como la Historia puede ser

Down provides a magnificent opportunity to see how

History can be freed from its solidified state and placed in the hands of normal citizens. The work consists of an equestrian statue of the dictator that moves up and down on the request of visitors to the Sala Santa Mnica in Barcelona. By calling one of two telephones, the spectator, rather than the representative of power, decides how he/she wants the sculpture to be: heroic or anti-heroic.
Franco up and down, manu military

Centre dart Santa Mnica, Barcelona, 2006

32 33

liberada de la solidificacin y dejada en manos de los ciudadanos, pues se trata de una escultura ecuestre del dictador que sube y baja a solicitud del espectador de la Sala Santa Mnica de Barcelona. Con una llamada a un telfono u otro el espectador, y no ya el poder, determina cmo quiere que sea la escultura: heroica o antiheroica. Relacionada con ese anlisis de la psique colectiva est su obra A cada nacionalismo su animal, colocada frente a la Estacin de Atocha de Madrid con motivo de la Noche en Blanco del ao 2009. Era una silueta gigante de un burro, al modo del famoso toro de Osborne que puebla el paisaje espaol y que ha sido protegido como parte de nuestro patrimonio. El artista ofreci el burro a cualquier pueblo que

Associated with this analysis of the collective psyche is To every nationalist movement its own animal, which was installed opposite Atocha Station in Madrid on White Night in 2009. It consisted of a giant silhouette of a donkey in the style of the famous Osborne bull that is to be found across the Spanish countryside and which is now a protected symbol of national heritage. Snchez Castillo offered the donkey to any village that would like to have it and set it up inside the village like a Trojan Horse. Curiously, not a single village in Catalonia, of which the donkey is the national symbol like the bull in Spain, requested one, probably due to the fact that it had originated in Madrid. In addition, the replacement of the bull with the donkey refers to specific traits of the Spanish

quisiera acogerlo e instalarlo en su territorio a modo

character that have frequently been stressed as if they had almost anthropological value. Thus Snchez Castillo says that, a nation full of donkeys symme trically repeats its double. For Germany, the artist undertook a project that is also associated with the collective psyche. This was

de Caballo de Troya. Curiosamente, ninguna localidad

de Catalua, donde el burro es un smbolo nacional, como el toro de Espaa, solicit la obra, probablemente por su procedencia centralista. Por otro lado, la sustitucin del toro por el burro alude a determinados rasgos del carcter espaol que han sido enfatizados con frecuencia como valores casi antropolgicos. Por eso dice el artista que una nacin plagada

Kaiser Eagle. The eagle from the German coat-ofarms was brought back from Holland to its native land in an open-top Mercedes, recalling the fact that Kaiser William II went into exile in Holland, promising never to return until the monarchy was restored in Germany. This was said by William II, not by the eagle, whose symbolism has subsequently been used in an exaggerated manner without bearing mind the circumstances that had inspired it. It is worth recalling the surprising number of flags with eagles on that appeared during the World Cup finals held in Germany in 2006.

de burros repite simtricamente a su doble.

Para Alemania acometi un proyecto relacionado tambin con la psique colectiva. Se trata de Kaiser

Eagle. En un coche Mercedes descapotable, el guila

del escudo alemn regresaba desde Holanda a su pas, recordando con ello que el Kaiser Guillermo II se haba exiliado en el pas de los tulipanes prometiendo no volver hasta que la monarqua fuera restaurada en Germania. Eso lo haba dicho Guillermo II, no el guila, cuya simbologa fue utilizada con desmesura posteriormente sin atender a las circunstancias que la haban inspirado. Recordemos la inusitada cantidad de banderas con el guila que se desplegaron con motivo del mundial de ftbol celebrado en Alemania el ao 2006. En otra entrevista con Ferrn Barenblit dice que estos flash backs tiene el objetivo de dislocar,

en la generacin posterior a la de la situacin o

Montaje de / Assembly of Burro grande, Burro grande, La noche en blanco, Madrid, 2009 Kaiser eagle, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Holanda, 2006

La noche en blanco, Madrid, 2009

34 35

momento histrico referido, las verdades transmitidas y consolidadas. stas eran tradicionalmente, en el siglo XX, transgredidas por la generacin emergente. Ahora, en trminos generales, se manifiesta un conformismo generacional y un deseo de ocupar el mismo escalafn que ocupan los progenitores. Podemos hablar de una regresin a una poca PRE Revolucin Francesa. El arte contemporneo acta como neuroconductor entre diferentes mbitos sociales y de pensamiento, pasendose por las grietas de los sistemas y llevndonos a conclusiones que nunca antes se haban podido imaginar o recrear.
Su actitud consiste, por tanto, en bucear en esas grietas y entresacar elementos concretos que participan en la situacin establecida para presentarlos en otra nueva que ilustre nuestro presente. As, un camin antidisturbios de la poca en que los grises disolvan las manifestaciones a manguerazos se convierte en el espacio de la Fundacin NMAC de Vejer de la Frontera en una fuente: El lugar ideal para la refle-

In another interview with Ferrn Barenbilt, Snchez Castillo said that these flashbacks have the aim of dislocating, in the generation subsequent to that of the situation or historical moment referred to, the truths that are transmitted and consolidated. Traditionally, in the 20th century, these were transgressed by the emerging generation. Now, in general terms, there is a generational conformity and a desire to occupy the same rung that was occupied by ones parents. We could speak of a regression to a PreFrench Revolutionary era. Contemporary art acts as a neuro-conductor between different ambits of society and of thought, passing through the cracks in the systems and leading us to conclusions that could never have previously been imagined or recreated. Snchez Castillos approach thus consists of seeking out those cracks and extracting from them specific elements that participate in the established situation, in order to present them in another new one that illustrates our own present. Thus, a police antiriot van that broke up protests with water cannon in Franco-era Spain became a fountain when shown in the exhibition space of Fundacin NMAC in Vejer de la Frontera: The ideal space for reflection and relaxation. And, just as if in our library or living room, let us place in the centre the trophy on top of that which, in the past, restricted our freedom to think and De la misma manera, con motivo de la exposicin de arte contemporneo espaol comisariada por Harald Szeemann en el PS1 de Nueva York en 2003, posteriormente presentada en Patio Herreriano de Valladolid, llev una estatua de Franco semienterrada en el asfalto junto con unos pallets de leche en polvo (Pacto de Madrid ) La exposicin se llamaba The Real

act, that which instilled fear into our desires for peace and harmony. An anti-riot van transformed into the fountain that inspires the life of the pool and which encourages aesthetic reflection. In a similar manner and on the occasion of the exhibition of Spanish contemporary art curated by Harald Szeemann at the PS1 in New York in 2003 and subsequently shown at the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, Snchez Castillo exhibited a statue of Franco half buried in the pavement together with various pallets of powdered milk, in a work entitled

The Madrid Pact. The exhibition was entitled The Real Royal Trip and was connected with the discovery of
South America, proposing an inverted discovery of contemporary Spanish art on the part of South Americans. The statue of Franco and the pallets of powdered milk were presented as a return of the favour of international recognition that the United States government granted Franco in return for being allowed to establish military bases in Spain. From the same crack in History, Snchez Castillo extracted the car in which Carrero Blanco was killed when blown up by ETA. He installed it, newly silverplated, firstly in the Centro Santa Mnica in Barcelona, and subsequently in the exhibition space of the MUSAC in Leon, along with the mast and benches from the yacht Azor from which Franco

Royal Trip y se relacionaba con la historia del descubrimiento de Amrica, planteando ahora el descubrimiento invertido del arte actual espaol por parte de los americanos. La estatua de Franco y los ballets de leche en polvo se presentaban como una devolucin del favor del reconocimiento internacional que los Estados Unidos prestaron al general Franco a cambio del establecimiento de bases militares en Espaa..
Fuente, Monasterio de la Cartuja, Sevilla, 2003

xin y el esparcimiento. Y como en nuestra biblioteca o cuarto de estar, situaremos en el centro, el trofeo sobre aquello que, en otro tiempo, coartaba nuestra libertad para pensar o actuar, aquello que atemorizaba nuestros deseos de paz y armona. Un camin antidisturbios convertido en la fuente que impulsa la vida del estanque y que invita a la reflexin esttica.

36

37

Fuente, Fundacin NMAC, Vejer de la Frontera, Cdiz, 2003

De la misma grieta de la Historia saca al coche en el que muri Carrero Blanco en el atentado de ETA para colocarlo, ahora plateado, primero en el centro Santa Mnica de Barcelona y posteriormente colgarlo en las salas del MUSAC de Len junto con el mstil y los bancos de yate Azor en el que pescaba Franco por aguas del Cantbrico. Descontextualizados, estetizados, ahora son instrumentos del arte que han salido de la Historia para convertirse en posibilidades de reflexin. En esa misma exposicin de 2007, titulada Abajo la inteligencia, presentaba tambin un video, Baraka, con las consultas quiromnticas realizadas a partir de una fotografa de la palma de la mano de Franco cuya obtencin le haba ocasionado mltiples desvelos y la necesidad de utilizar trucos de todo tipo que sortearan la negativa institucional a facilitrsela. Sin decir a las quiromantes de quien se trataba, obtuvo respuestas sorprendentes sobre el carcter del dictador. Pero acaso lo ms importante resida en todo el proceso hasta la presentacin de las obras, en la negociacin institucional necesaria para obtener los elementos imprescindibles para sus acciones artsticas. Cmo plantear a la institucin que guarda la mscara mortuoria de Franco la necesidad de acceder a ella, cmo sortear la desconfianza de esa institucin ante la presencia de un artista que demanda algo extrao e inusual. El poder desconfa, fished in the waters of the Cantabrian Sea. Decontextualised, aestheticised, these elements became instruments of art that have emerged from History to become potential for reflection. In that same exhibition of 2007, entitled Down with Intelligence, Snchez Castillo also showed a video entitled Baraka that relayed the opinions of various palm-readers who had been shown a photograph of Francos palm. Obtaining that photograph cost the artist enormous trouble and he had been obliged to devise a wide variety of ingenious ruses in order to get round refusals on the part of the authorities to let him have it. Without telling the palm-readers whose palm it was, Snchez Castillo had obtained some startling opinions on Francos character. However, perhaps the most important aspect of a work such as this one lies in the procedure as a whole that leads up to the presentation of the works, specifically, the negotiations with official institutions that had to be undertaken in order to obtain the essential elements
Treaty of Madrid / Pacto de Madrid,

no en vano ante l se yergue otro poder, el del arte, que tambin tiene su historia y su capacidad de establecer nuevas activaciones a partir de lo ya establecido. El arte puede poner en circulacin imgenes que inducen a repensar, a abrir el campo de posibilidades de lo sabido, a modificar el conocimiento institucionalizado y generar conocer. Esta diferencia entre conocimiento y conocer resulta fundamental; es la que existe entre el sustantivo y el verbo, entre lo esttico y lo dinmico, entre lo que est fijado y la accin. En esta exposicin del MUSAC de Len present tambin una urna que contena dos pelos de la caja de Franco, eran dos pelos que haban quedado pegados en la escayola utilizada para realizar la mscara mortuoria. El azar, un elemento determinante en el arte, el estar atento a las historias que puede generar la Historia, hizo que esos pelos estuvieran en poder del asistente con el que trabaj el artista en el proyecto de la exposicin, quien haba realizado

for the artistic act; how to persuade the institution that houses Francos funerary mask of the necessity to allow access to it; and how to overcome the suspicions of that institution regarding an artist who was requesting something strange and unusual. Power is suspicious of art, and with good reason, as art yields it own power and also has its history and its ability to re-activate what has been previously established in a new and different way. Art can put into circulation images that encourage a re-thinking of what is already known, opening up the field of possibilities, modifying institutionalised knowledge and generating ways of knowing. That difference between knowledge and ways of knowing is crucial; it is the one that exists between noun and verb, between static and dynamic, between immobility and action. In the exhibition at the MUSAC in Leon, Snchez Castillo also showed an urn that contained two hairs from Francos coffin. These hairs had got

Baraka, 2007 (fotogramas / videostills)

MoMA PS1, Nueva York, 2002

40 41

 El yate Azor / The Azor yacht

Narn, 2007. Coleccin / Collection MUSAC

Abajo la inteligencia, 2007. MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporneo de Castilla y Len, Len. Panormica de la exposicin / Installation view

la fundicin de la mscara y haba guardado los pelos en la funda de celofn de un paquete de cigarrillos. Sin dudarlo, esa casualidad fue aprovechada, y despus de adquirir unos pelos que no tenan un claro propietario y con los que no estaba claro qu hacer, el artista tiene intencin de ofrecrselos al Museo del Ejrcito, donde se guardan restos mortuorios de grandes personajes. En realidad todo el trabajo de Fernando Snchez Castillo gira alrededor del poder, entendido ste al modo Foucaultiano, no como una instancia concreta que censura o atemoriza sino como una red difusa de relaciones que estructuran un sometimiento y que acaba cristalizando en determinadas instituciones cuya existencia es asumida con naturalidad tras un proceso de repeticin de comportamientos. En una conversacin entre Foucault y Deleuze dice este ltimo que el poder tiene por fuerza una visin total

stuck to the plaster from which his funerary mask was made. Chance (a determining factor in art) or, to put it another way, being alert to the stories that History can create, meant that these hairs were in the possession of the assistant with whom Snchez Castillo worked on the exhibition project. He had cast Francos funerary mask and had stored the hairs in the cellophane wrapper of a cigarette packet. Without hesitating, Snchez Castillo took advantage of this chance event: he acquired a couple of hairs, the ownership of which was not clear, nor did he have much idea of what to do with them. He now, however, intends to offer them to the Army Museum, which houses funerary remains of important individuals. In fact, all of Fernando Snchez Castillos works revolves around the concept of power in the sense that Foucault used it, not as a concrete body that censors or intimidates, but as a diffuse network of relations that create a situation of subjection and which ultimately take shape in the form of specific institutions, the existence of which is accepted in a natural manner following a process of behavioural repetition. In a conversation between Foucault and Deleuze, the latter said that, power has by necessity a total or global vision and that, what we can do is implement lateral connections, an entire system of networks, starting at ground level. 4 This, in fact, is

tacin jerrquica. No pretende desestabilizar ninguna institucin, pues sabe perfectamente que, como dice Foucault, el poder no se tiene, se ejerce; el poder no es una propiedad sino un ejercicio en el que participamos todos, en el que el problema no somos las personas individuales, la mayora de las cuales no somos ms que peones o instrumentos que, en el fondo, deseamos mantener comportamientos que se alejen de sus rutinas. l mismo ha colaborado con las instituciones cuando se lo han pedido. As, represent a Espaa en la Bienal de Sao Paulo con un vdeo titulado Rich cat dies of heart attack, en el que se producan una serie de acciones con una cabeza que pareca ser el resto de un monumento derruido. Con ella se practicaban algunos deportes (la cabeza a modo de pelota) o se escenificaban coreografas, en un conjunto ambiguo y un tanto absurdo, como el propio ttulo, que no es otro que el titular que apareci en 1964 en los peridicos brasileos el mismo

how Snchez Castillo works, applying a small-scale rather than a global viewpoint and establishing the type of lateral connections of which Deleuze spoke. He selects various components from which he generates a situation, establishing new and different connections devoid of any hierarchical representation. Snchez Castillo does not aim to destabilise any institution as he knows perfectly well, as Foucault said, that one does not have power, one exercises it; power is not a property but an exercise in which we all participate and in which the problem is not the individuals, most of whom are no more than workers or tools whose principal desire is to maintain patterns of behaviour that take us out of our daily routine. Snchez Castillo has himself worked with institutions when asked. He represented Spain, for example, at the Sao Paulo Biennial with a video entitled Rich cat

dies of heart attack. The work involved a series of

actions with a head that seemed to be part of a demolished monument. The head was used for various sporting activities, in the manner of a ball and was the subject of various set pieces of choreography. Overall, the mood was ambiguous and slightly absurd, like the title itself, which is a headline that appeared in 1964 in Brazilian newspapers on the same day that a coup dtat brought political change to the country. Absurd but true. It should be recalled

o global y que lo que nosotros podemos hacer es llegar a instaurar conexiones laterales, todo un sistema de redes, de base popular .4 Pues bien, Snchez Castillo acta de esa manera, aplicando una visin de detalle antes que global y estableciendo esas conexiones laterales de las que habla Deleuze. l selecciona determinados componentes y genera una situacin con ellos, estableciendo unas conexiones nuevas, distintas, que carecen de ninguna represen-

Rich Cat, 2004 (fotograma / videostill)

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da en el que un golpe de estado estableci el cambio poltico del pas. S, absurdo, pero as fue, no se poda decir otra cosa. Conviene recordar que la Bienal coincidi con el tiempo en el que Espaa entraba en la guerra de Irak. El trabajo, entonces, consiste en introducirse en el proceso de cristalizacin para modificarlo sutilmente, y para ello necesita de una connivencia que l mismo reconoce cuando en las presentaciones que hace de su trabajo utiliza el pronombre nosotros en lugar del yo habitual. La obra es de todos, pues sin esa connivencia nunca existira. El resultado es que el cristal cambia su apariencia, al menos por un momento, y cobra una fluidez a la que no estamos acostumbrados. La institucin se mantiene, pero lo que parece ya no es lo mismo. Por eso, el vdeo de los camiones antidisturbios de la Polica holandesa que bailan al son de la msica clsica frente al mar (Coreografa para camiones antidisturbios ) o el realizado con motivo de esta exposicin en CAC de Mlaga (El mtodo del discurso ), en el que los robots que la Guardia Civil usa para desactivar explosivos colaboran en la realizacin de la propia exposicin, constituyen una magnfica oportunidad para comprobar un uso alternativo de los instrumentos de trabajo de unas instituciones cuya misin es prestar

that the Biennial in question coincided with Spains participation in the Gulf War. Snchez Castillos work thus consists of inserting himself into the process of crystallisation in order to subtly modify it. To do so he needs to make use of a concept of co-existence that he himself acknowledges when he uses the pronoun us rather than the more usual I in his presentations. The work thus belongs to us all, as without that co-existence it would not exist. As a result, the crystal changes its appearance, at least for an instant, and acquires an unaccustomed fluidity. The institution remains, but it seems different. For this reason, the video with the anti-riot vans of the Dutch police, dancing to the sound of classical music by the sea (entitled Choreography for anti-riot vans), or the one made for the present exhibition at the CAC Mlaga (The method of discourse) in which the robots

se ponen al servicio del arte. Los camiones realizan unos movimientos nada habituales; modificando los comportamientos agresivos con los que los tenemos asociados por otros mucho ms bellos en los que destaca la armona. No es eso a lo que estamos acostumbrados y, por ello, sorprende y alegra. Se trata

that the Guardia Civil use to deactivate explosives were involved in the realisation of the exhibition itself, offer an outstanding opportunity to appreciate an alternative role for the working tools used by institutions whose mission is to serve the country in times of peace. In both cases, they are placed in the service of art. The anti-riot vans make unaccustomed manoeuvres, replacing the aggressive behavioural patterns with which we associate them with other, much more attractive ones in which harmony is particularly evident. This is not what we are used to, and for this reason the result pleases and surprises. The idea was to use them in a different way and convince them that they could be used in a different way and that it is good to show a different face. Power presents a different face. Flix Duque said was power most feared was impotence, it had to act; if something happened it could not remain inactive or become a useless object. Power has to display its weapons, it has to act for whatever reason. The robots brought the works into the museum, in itself an institution that many have criticised for its deactivating character, given that its sacred role in contemporary culture has in fact functioned to nullify the power of art to play an active role in society. Thus the robots are correctly fulfilling the role for which they were designed: deactivating the potential for an explosion.

de utilizarlos de una manera diferente y convencerles de que se pueden utilizar de una manera diferente, y de que es bueno ofrecer otra cara. El poder ofrece otra cara. Deca Flix Duque que el poder a lo que ms teme es a la impotencia, tiene que actuar; si ocurre algo no puede estar parado, se convierte en algo intil. Las armas, el poder tiene que mostrarlas, tiene que actuar para lo que sea. Por su parte, los robots
introducen las obras en el museo, una institucin de la que no son pocos los que sostienen que es desactivadora, que la sacralidad que ostenta actualmente en la cultura contempornea no hace sino anular el poder del arte para activar a la sociedad. Con ello, los robots estaran cumpliendo adecuadamente su misin. Para eso fueron diseados, para anular la potencia explosiva. Sin embargo, una vez dentro la traicionarn, pues habrn colaborado a activar una potencia que la obra de arte posee y que, cuando es una autntica obra de arte y encuentra espectadores abiertos a nuevas experiencias, supera las posibilidades desactivadoras de cualquier institucin.

servicio a la patria en tiempos de paz. En ambos casos

Pegasus Dance, 2007 (fotograma / videostill)

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Adems, los robots, como los camiones de Rotterdam, son los que hacen la obra. La mano del artista est ausente, lo que de alguna manera constituye un guio a esas opiniones tan extendidas que igualan la calidad de una obra de arte con la maestra tcnica de su realizacin. El artista tampoco es un hroe, no es un ser superior dotado de cualidades excepcionales sino una persona de su tiempo que utiliza las herramientas de su poca para manifestar una mirada distinta, profunda y crtica. Al fin y al cabo, esa es la propuesta, nada alejada de la famosa frase todos somos artistas con la que Joseph Beuys invitaba a la sociedad a esculpirse de una manera diferente. Pero sta no es la primera vez que Fernando Snchez Castillo introduce la desacralizacin de la figura del artista. Ya en una exposicin en la Galera Juana de Aizpuru present unos cuadros realizados mediante el lanzamiento de huevos rellenos de pintura. El resultado eran unos lienzos en diversos estilos de la Historia del Arte que engaaban perfectamente a

However, once inside, they betray it, as they will have collaborated in activating a power that the work of art possesses and which, when it is an authentic work of art and encounters viewers open to new experiences, can surpass the deactivating potential of any institution. In addition, it is the robots, like the Rotterdam anti-riot vans, that make the work. The artists hand is absent, a fact that is to some extent a knowing wink to the widely shared opinion that considers that the quality of a work is equated with the technical mastery with which it is made. Nor is the artist a hero; he (or she) is not a superior being endowed with exceptional qualities, but rather a person of their own time who uses the tools of the moment to propose a different, profound and critical viewpoint. Ultimately, this is the idea, and one that is not that far from Joseph Beuyss celebrated phrase, we are all artists, with which he invited society to sculpt itself in a different form. This is not, however, the first time that Snchez Castillo has introduced the concept of the desacralisation of the figure of the artist. In an exhibition held at the Galera Juana de Aizpuru he showed various paintings created by throwing eggs filled with paint. The result was a series of canvases in different art historical styles that completely fooled all those unfamiliar with the way in which they had

quien ignorara el procedimiento utilizado para su realizacin. Sin embargo, eran muy decorativos, muy apropiados para colgar en una casa burguesa, como los otros que haba en esa misma exposicin, aunque pintados en un estilo ms realista y que contenan representaciones pictricas de las barricadas. Unos aos antes, haba realizado un vdeo en la Universidad Autnoma de Madrid en el que se pona de manifiesto esa estrategia de conexiones laterales de la que habla Deleuze. El vdeo era una catarata de canicas que caan estruendosamente por las escaleras de una Facultad y se esparcan por el vestbulo. La alusin a las mnimas estrategias de defensa de los estudiantes postsesentaiochistas contra las acometidas policiales a caballo eran claras. Junto a este vdeo present otro en el que un hombre a caballo paseaba altivo por el espacio interior de una Universidad que, como se sabe, haba sido especialmente diseada para el libre acceso y circulacin de la polica montada. Su diseo ya se preocupaba tanto de la represin como de la enseanza, una equiparacin de la que no se extraarn muchos pedagogos. El hecho de que el hombre que ahora se desplazaba por ese espacio tuviera una edad media y vistiera traje indicaba que las cosas han cambiado, que quien haca unos aos se defenda y discrepaba de la situacin, era ahora quien la controlaba.

been made. They were, however, highly decorative and very suitable for hanging on the walls of a middle-class home, like the rest of the works in the exhibition, although the others were painted in a more realistic style and depicted barricades. Some years before, Snchez Castillo had made a video at the Universidad Autnoma, Madrid, in which he gave form to Deleuzes strategy of lateral connections. The video depicted a great cascade of marbles that crashed deafeningly down the stairs of one of the universitys departments and scattered across the entrance lobby. The reference to the post68 students minimal means of defending themselves in the face of attacks by the mounted police was clear. Together with this video the artist presented another one in which a man on horseback rode proudly around the inside of the Autnoma, which, as we all know, was specially designed to allow the police easy access and circulation. The buildings design thus focused as much on repression as on teaching, a parallel that will fail to surprise a good number of those involved in education. The fact that the man now moving around the space was middle aged and was wearing a suit indicated that things had changed and that the one who, some years ago, defended himself and criticised the situation, was now the one in charge.

Vista de la instalacin / Installation view Divertimento,

Galera Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid, 2009

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la serie de barricadas que Fernando Snchez Castillo ha presentado en diversos lugares han sido realizadas en bronce, que es el material con el que se produca la estatuaria que siempre ha representado al poder. Usar ese material noble para simular un conjunto de objetos cotidianos acumulados en Nor, in fact, is the power of the art institution, the crystallisation of specific modes of behaviour and artistic assumptions, free from attack by Snchez Castillo, who believes that the position of the artist Tampoco el poder de la institucin arte, la cristalizacin de determinados comportamientos y asunciones artsticas, est libre del acecho de quien manifiesta que la posicin del artista en este pas tiene que ser in this country has to be tremendously chameleonic, playing with connivance and with powers approval, being used, using and being aware of it, aware that this is the game and, in spite of that, making a work that is mediated and not instantaneous. This expression of ideas is extremely realist in tone, the statement of one who knows perfectly the mechanisms by which the system functions and knows that we are not living in a utopian era and that any opposition has to be intelligent and skilful rather than aggressive. Revolutions pass and none seem to be in the offing at the moment, with only the barricades left behind as a physical reminder, albeit an aestheticised one. As a result, the entire series of barricades that Snchez Castillo has shown in various venues was made in bronze, the material used to make the statuary that has always represented power.
Canicas, 2002 (fotograma / videostill) Barricada Utrecht, Leidsche Rhein, Holanda, 2009

Using this noble material to simulate a barricade an assemblage of everyday objects hastily piled up during violent social events - is a new inversion of this meaning, elevating something that has always been considered humble to the status of art. The barricade is a popular object as it is the people that defend it, and its arrival in museum galleries or in the realm of public art implies a memory of it that can now only exist in art. Another work that inverts meaning is Lart de la

procesos socialmente violentos es una nueva inversin del sentido y una elevacin al estatus de arte de aquello que es considerado bajo. La barricada es popular, pues es el pueblo el que se defiende, y su entrada en las salas musesticas o en el mbito del arte pblico implica una memoria que ya slo puede pervivir en el arte. Tambin invierte el sentido su pieza titulada Lart

table, a 167-piece, silver cutlery set in which the

handle of each piece is a weapon used by different armies. This strong, beautiful object is also thoughtprovoking, as the precious metal from which it is made and the associated cost makes it a luxury item that nevertheless has a practical function. In this work weapons are used for nourishing life rather than as instruments of death, but these weapons point at the person eating when he or she raises the piece of cutlery to the mouth, bringing to mind the relationship

tremendamente camalenica, jugar con la connivencia y el beneplcito del poder, ser usado y usar y ser consciente de ello, de que ese es el juego y, a pesar de ello, hacer una obra que sea mediata, que no sea inmediata.
Hay en esa manifestacin un tono muy realista, el de quien conoce perfectamente los mecanismos de funcionamiento del sistema y el de quien sabe que no es tiempo de utopas, que cualquier oposicin ha de ser ms inteligente y hbil que agresiva. Las revoluciones pasaron y no se vislumbra ninguna prxima, quedando las barricadas como un vestigio de ellas; eso s, un vestigio estetizado. Por eso, toda
Arquitectuea para el caballo, 2002 (fotograma / videostill)

de la table, una cubertera de plata de 167 piezas en

la que todos los cubiertos tienen como mango un arma utilizada en los diferentes ejrcitos. Se trata de una obra rotunda y bella que da que pensar, pues el metal precioso con el que est elaborada, y el coste consiguiente, hacen de ella una pieza de lujo que,

Barricada Utrecht, en proceso / work in process

Leidsche Rhein, Holanda, 2009

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 Barricada Utrecht, Leidsche Rhein, Holanda, 2009

Barricada Utrecht, Leidsche Rhein, Holanda, 2009

sin embargo, est destinada a su uso. Armas para ser utilizadas como nutriente de vida y no ya como instrumento de muerte, pero armas que apuntan al comensal cuando se lleva la comida a la boca, recordndole la relacin entre el lujo y la pobreza y la muerte. Adems, esta obra incide en el aspecto econmico del arte al poner en competencia la revalorizacin del metal precioso con la del arte. De las armas hablan tambin los rboles cortados en bronce, concretamente de la ametralladora, un invento de Hiram Maxim que se ha convertido en el arma que ms seres humanos ha abatido. La ametralladora es un claro ejemplo de la perversin de los desarrollos tecnolgicos que han caracterizado a la Modernidad, un invento para la barbarie y la eliminacin del otro, un arma de la imposicin y el dominio conseguido mediante aniquilacin. La imagen del inventor demostrando las bondades de su descubrimiento es el punto de arranque de una obra que nos presenta a los rboles como sinnimos del ser humano. Nuevamente, la utilizacin del metal
Art de la table, 2009

between luxury, poverty and death. In addition, this work emphasises the financial aspect of art by comparing the price rise of precious metal to that of art. Another work on the subject of arms involves cutdown bronze trees made from metal from machine guns, the weapon invented by Hiram Maxim that has killed more human beings than any other. The machine gun can be considered an excellent example of the perversion of the technological advances that have characterised modern society. It is an invention for committing barbarities and for eliminating ones fellow human beings, a weapon that achieves subjugation and mastery through annihilation. The image of its inventor demonstrating its merits is the starting point of Snchez Castillos work, which presents trees as synonyms of human beings. Once again the use of bronze, the metal that has been most widely used for the representation of power, deceives the viewer who, as with the barricades, witnesses a perfect simulation in which a game of backwards and forwards is created between what is seen and what is concealed. que ms se ha utilizado en la representacin del poder engaa a un espectador que, como en el caso de las barricadas, asiste a una simulacin perfecta en la que se produce un juego de ida y vuelta entre lo que se ve y lo que se oculta. Es llamativa la frecuencia del agua en la obra destinada al mbito pblico. Ha realizado diversas fuentes en las que estn presentes tambin figuras representativas del poder. l mismo dice que el agua le resulta un elemento interesante porque aporta al espectador una sensacin de relajo o aturdimiento que enlaza antropolgicamente con el jbilo que sienten los chimpancs en presencia de una cascada de la selva. Es cierto que la sensibilidad humana al agua es un buen motivo para esconder tras ella un dispositivo alterador que exija del espectador atencin. Por otro lado, las fuentes son utilizadas por los responsables urbanos como elemento esttico y decoracin de la ciudad, pues ya no se trata de las humildes fuentes tradicionales que existan antao en
Boceto para / Sketch to Van Hall Shoot Tree, 2008

It is striking how often Snchez Castillo has used water in his works of art made for public spaces. Furthermore, he has created a number of fountains in which figures representative of power are also present. The artist himself says that water interests him as it gives the viewer a sense of relaxation or of surprise that connects anthropologically to the elation felt by chimpanzees when they encounter a waterfall in the jungle. It is clear that human sensitivity to water is a good reason for concealing within it a modifying procedure that demands the viewers attention. In addition, fountains are used by those in charge of the urban environment as aesthetic and decorative elements in cities. No longer are they the simple, traditional fountains that were formerly to be found in our cities and villages and whose
Hixam maxim inventium

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 Shot Tree (for Walraven van Hall), 2010

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nuestras ciudades y pueblos para saciar la sed de los ciudadanos. Ahora, se construyen fuentes espectaculares con chorros que suben, bajan, cambian el ritmo y producen figuras diversas para solaz del pblico. En Caldas de Reis realiz una fuente de las llamadas tradicionales, una de esas a la que cualquiera puede acercarse a beber. Era un busto de Franco del que manaba un chorro de agua por la boca. Es la

function was to quench the thirst of the inhabitants. Now, we encounter spectacular fountains involving jets of water that rise up, sink down, change rhythm and create different shapes, all for the solace of the general public. In Caldas de Reis, Snchez Castillo made a fountain of what might be termed the traditional type, from which anyone could take a drink. It took the form of a bust of Franco that spouted water from its mouth. It is the idea of the Caudillo as a character that spouts abundance, fertility, wellbeing, justice [...] and emanates water. It is an opportunity to drink from the lips of someone who has generated an entire discourse, the artist explained in an interview with Javier Tudela. The fountain was vandalised by the public, who threw paint over it and used the pedestal to manifest their opinion in a more physical manner. The second time the work was exhibited, in the Galera Juan Sili in Santander, Snchez Castillo retained the additions made by the public and presented it in the state in which it had ended up in Caldas de Reis.

Especialmente brillantes son las fuentes realizadas en Suecia y en Holanda. En la primera, en la Wanas Foundation, plantea una disposicin que enlaza con la esttica de espectculo acutico, en el que varios surtidores establecen un juego de chorros que establecen bellas formas sobre el lago. Sin embargo, todos los mecanismos que son capaces de producir tanta belleza estn fabricados por una industria intensamente relacionada con la fabricacin de los caones utilizados en los camiones antidisturbios y en las prisiones. Esa empresa fue la que aport los caones y el software con el Fernando Snchez Castillo realiz una coreografa plena de belleza y armona. Su enfoque no ofrece lugar a dudas, l mismo lo manifiesta: He utilizado esa estrategia de colabo-

The fountains that the artist made in Sweden and Holland are particularly dazzling. In the former, at the Wanas Foundation, Snchez Castillo invented a mechanism that relates to the aesthetic of water displays, in which various spouts create a play of jets that make beautiful shapes over the lake. However, the mechanisms responsible for creating so much beauty were in fact made by a company very closely related to the manufacture of the water cannons used in anti-riot vehicles and in prisons. It was this company that supplied the water cannons and software that Snchez Castillo used to create his beautiful and harmonious aquatic choreography. His approach leaves no room for doubt, as he himself states: I used that strategy of collaboration to show how, within the terrain of aesthetics, it is possible to conceal something that is much more perverse than we might imagine. How behind every document of culture, so to speak, of high culture, in a sculpture park in Sweden, that most liberal society, lie barbaric

idea del caudillo como un personaje del que mana la abundancia, del que mana la fertilidad, del que mana el bienestar, la justicia y emana agua. Es una oportunidad de beber de los labios del que ha generado un discurso, dijo el artista en una entrevista con Javier
Tudela. El resultado fue una reaccin vandlica del pblico, que arroj botes de pintura a la escultura y aprovech el pedestal para manifestar su opinin. En la siguiente vez que se expuso la obra, en la Galera Juan Sili de Santander, el artista no elimin nada de lo que el pueblo haba introducido en la obra, la present tal y como qued en Caldas de Reis.

racin para mostrar cmo en la esttica se puede ocultar algo mucho ms perverso de lo que pensamos. Cmo detrs de cada documento de cultura, por as decirlo, de alta cultura, de un parque de esculturas en Suecia, de la sociedad ms liberal, se ocultan

Fuente de Caldas, 2009

Ataque annimo sobre Fuente de Caldas /

Unifire riot fountain, Wanas Foundation, Suecia / Sweden, 2008

Unifire riot fountain, monitores de control / control monitors

Anonymous attack on Fuente de Caldas, 2009

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Riot fountain, Wanas Foundation, Suecia / Sweden, 2008

comportamientos de barbarie. Tras esta frase est Walter Benjamin y su intento de introducir el pensamiento crtico en una concepcin de la Historia que con tanta frecuencia aparece enlazada con la de progreso. En Sonsbeek (2008) coloc los bustos emergentes de 5 personajes histricos, Stalin, Hugo Chavez, Franco, Luis XIV y Felipe V, en un espacio acutico.

modes of behaviour. Behind this sentence stands Walter Benjamin and his attempt to introduce critical thought into a concept of History that is so often linked to that of progress. In Sonsbeek in 2008, Snchez Castillo installed the busts of five historical/political figures Stalin, Hugo Chavez, Franco, Louis XIV and Philip V of Spain rising from an aquatic setting. Spitting Leaders, as the work was entitled, is, as the artist himself says, an erroneous pedagogical element within a society (Holland) in which the vestiges of Calvinism survive in the cleanliness of its designed environment. Regardless of origins or period, Snchez Castillos five leaders spit at each other in a chaotic dialectic that involves a note of irony. In this regard it should be recalled that Bergson defined irony as: pretending, one talks of what should be as if it actually existed: this is irony.5 Humour, in contrast, is: the precise and meticulous description of what is, pretending to believe that that is how things should be. 6 Snchez Castillos work is thus more ironic than humorous as

morstico, porque presenta las cosas como debera ser, y no lo que son, fingiendo lo que deberan ser. Otra de sus obras relacionadas con el agua es

it presents things as they should be and not as they are, pretending what they ought to be. Another work by Snchez Castillo that relates to water is Fountain of wishes, a sculpture installed in Osnabruck in conjunction with the public art project

Fountain of wishes, una escultura, instalada en Osnabruck con motivo de una exposicin comisariaza por Jan Hoet para celebrar los 2000 aos de la nacin alemana, cuyo origen que l emplaza en la derrota de los romanos en la batalla Colossal. La pieza es un antidisturbios que, a modo de fuente, orina dentro de un ro, cerca de un puente donde un interruptor rojo invita al espectador a participar oprimindolo. La sorpresa inmediata llega en forma de chapuzn para los no avisados, pues el chorro que mana del antidisturbios cambia su potencia y direccin y se dirige hacia el lugar en el que est instalado el interruptor. Slo los ms rpidos de reflejos se libran del remojn. Ese es el precio de rerte de un antidisturbios, que, al fin y al cabo, es como un nio. Risa da tambin, y no es la primera vez, pues ya al

Colossal that was curated by Jan Hoet to celebrate

2,000 years of the German nation, whose origin is generally located in the defeat of the Romans by the Germans at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. Fountain

Spitting Leaders, que as se llama la obra, es, como

l mismo dice, un elemento pedaggico errneo dentro de una sociedad, la holandesa, en la que las huellas del calvinismo perviven en la limpieza de su diseo vital. Los lderes, con independencia de su origen y tiempo, se escupen unos a otros, en una dialctica catica que no est exenta de irona. A este respecto conviene recordar que Bergson defina la irona como la enunciacin de lo que debera ser,

of wishes is a sculpture of an anti-riot policeman who,

in the manner of a fountain, pees into a river beside a bridge. Nearby, a red button catches the attention of the viewer, who is tempted to press it. The unwary viewer, however, will be soaked by a shower of water as the jet of urine changes direction and force and hits the viewer standing by the button. Only those with the quickest reactions can jump out the way. This, then, is the price of making fun of an anti-riot policeman who is, at the end of the day, similar to a child.

fingiendo creer que es precisamente lo que es.5 El

humor, en cambio, sera la descripcin minuciosa y

meticulosa de lo que es, fingiendo creer que es eso lo que las cosas deberan ser. 6 Por eso, el trabajo de
Fernando Snchez Castillo es ms irnico que hu-

Spitting Leaders, Soonbeek, Blgica, 2008

Fountain of wishes, Colossal, Art Facts Fiction, Alemania, 2009

Fountain of wishes, 2009 (dibujo / sketch)

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 Spitting Leaders, Soonbeek, Blgica, 2008

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principio de su carrera Simulador de explosiones provocaba concentraciones de espectadores sonrientes en Arco, otra pieza presente en esta exposicin del CAC Mlaga. El Alimentador de pjaros es una construccin absurda cuya utilidad da que pensar, pues toda la labor de ingeniera que contiene se pone al servicio de una actividad que los seres humanos han realizado siempre sin otorgarle la menor importancia. Dar de comer a los pjaros con las migajas sobrantes es algo que todos hemos hecho. Lo importante en la obra, en cambio, es que sea ahora de una corona real de donde surjan esas migajas que caen al suelo o quedan desparramadas por los recovecos de la escultura. La verdad es que en ningn caso el contenido del trabajo del artista es para rerse, o s, porque la risa es, como dice Bergson en su libro con ese ttulo, producto de lo inesperado, de aquello que rompe con la normalidad. Y eso es justamente lo que hacen casi todas las obras de las que hemos venido hablando. Son como los tropiezos callejeros que usa Bergson para explicar la risa, esos tropiezos que tanta hilaridad provocan en quien los presencia. Al que cae le hace poca gracia, mientras que el que lo ve apenas puede aguantarse. Se re porque no se espera que ocurra y la risa se le congela si comprueba que el afectado se ha hecho dao. Esa es, creo, la mejor descripcin de las sensaciones que provocan

Snchez Castillos work has provoked laughter from the very outset of his career, for example, Explosions

las obras: una sonrisa que se va congelando y en la que los dientes transmutan su alegre visibilidad en una amenaza de mordisco. Lo que vemos en las obras nunca es normal. No lo es que los camiones antidisturbios hagan de fuente o bailen ballet, no lo es que los robots de los artificieros de la Guardia Civil se dediquen a montar exposiciones o a pintar, ni que las estatuas aparezcan troceadas y esparcidas por la calle o que de un busto de Franco mane agua, por poner slo algunos ejemplos de las obras que hemos venido analizando. Pero tampoco es normal que quien ha dicho alguna vez entre risas he dejado de ser artista, ahora soy pintor, pinte con ahnco unos cuadros copiados de unas fotografas de la Guerra Civil tomadas por Agustn Centelles. Pues lo hizo, y seriamente; constituyendo una nueva prueba de que el esto ha sido con el que Roland Barthes defini a la fotografa queda en poca cosa cuando el mismo asunto es representado pictricamente en un tamao, adems, bien distinto al de la fotografa original. Esos cuadros eran de grandes dimensiones, perfectamente adecuados para una exposicin musestica o para la casa de un coleccionista. Lo hasta aqu dicho parece indicar que no confa en la pintura, tal vez por demasiado esttica, lo que, siendo cierto no evita que alguna vez, no muchas, haya regresado a ella para saciar su pasin formalista.

Laughter is produced because the event witnessed is unexpected and it stops if it transpires that the person falling over has hurt himself. I believe this to be the best description of the sensations aroused by Snchez Castillos works: a smile that gradually freezes and in which the teeths cheerful visibility transforms itself into the threat of a bite. What we see in these works is never normal. It is not normal that anti-riot vans function as a fountain or perform ballet, or that the Guardia Civils police robots help to install exhibitions or paint, or that statues appear broken into pieces and scattered around the streets, or that Francos bust spouts water, just to offer a few examples from the works that we have been discussing here. Nor, however, is it normal that someone who has laughingly said on occasions, I have stopped being an artist, now Im a painter has industriously executed various paintings copied from photographs by Agustn Centelles of the Spanish Civil War. However, Snchez Castillo did just this, and in a serious manner, offering further proof that Roland Barthes definition of photography as this has happened proves of little worth when the same subject is depicted as a painting that is also of a very different size to the original photograph. These paintings were large in size and therefore particularly appropriate for a museum exhibition or a collectors house.

Simulator, which attracted crowds of smiling

spectators at ARCO. Humour is once again to be found in a piece on display in the present exhibition at the CAC Mlaga. Bird Feeder is an absurd construction whose utility is questionable, given that the engineering that it involves is placed in the service of an activity that human beings have always undertaken without conceding the least importance to it. Feeding birds with crumbs is something that we have all done. The important element in the work, however, is that the crumbs now arise from a real crown, falling onto the ground or scattered among the nooks and crannies of the sculpture. In fact, the content of Snchez Castillos work is not to be laughed at, or if it is, it is in the sense that Bergson used in his essay Laughter: an essay on the

meaning of the comic, when he stated that laughter

arises from the unexpected, from breaking with reality. This is precisely what happens with almost all the works that we have discussed. They are like the act of tripping over in the street that Bergson uses to explain laughter and which tends to provoke so much hilarity on the part of eyewitnesses. The person tripping over finds nothing funny about the situation, but the person looking on can barely contain himself.

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What has been said up to now seems to indicate that Snchez Castillo does not trust painting, possibly because it is too aesthetic. Even if this is true, it has not prevented him from occasionally returning to it to satiate his formalist l mismo lo ha reconocido en ms de una ocasin y yo mismo he podido comprobar en mis visitas a su estudio cmo se aplicaba con delectacin al modelaje de alguna cabeza de la que posteriormente, tras pasar por el proceso de fundicin, hara uso en sus obras escultricas o en vdeo. No en vano, estamos hablando de un artista que no puede evitar pertenecer a la Historia, tambin a la del Arte. No es posible desembarazarse de ella y, como ya dijo Sartre, somos passion. The artist himself has acknowledged it on more than one occasion, while on his visits to the artists studio the present author has witnessed the pleasure with which Snchez Castillo engages in modelling heads that are subsequently cast and used in one of his sculptural works or videos. Not by chance, then, have we been discussing an artist who cannot avoid belonging to History and to the History of Art. He cannot rid himself of it and, as Sartre once said, we are what we do with what they made of us.

lo que hacemos con lo que hicieron de nosotros.

2 1 2 3

Huizinga, Johan en Homo Ludens, Alianza, 1998, p. 21. Ibid, p. 23. Gadamer, Hand-Goerg enLa actualidad de lo bello, Paids, Barcelona 1991, p. 67. Foucault, Michel en Microfsica del poder, Las Ediciones de la Piqueta, Madrid, 1991, p. 82-83. Bergson, H., La risa, ensayo sobre la significacin de lo cmico, Alianza Editorial,Madrid, 2008, p. 92.

Ibid.
Centelles, Nis jugando a fusilar, MUSAC, Len, 2007

Huizinga, Johan, Homo Ludens. Alianza, 1998, p.21 [English ed., Routledge, 2008] Ibid, p. 23. Gadamer, Hans-Georg, La actualidad de lo bello. Paids, Barcelona, 1991, p.67 [English ed., The Relevance of the Beautiful and other Essays, CUP, 1986]. Foucault, Michel, Microfsica del poder. La Ediciones de la Piqueta, Madrid, 1991, pp.82, 83. Bergson, H., La risa. Ensayo sobre la significacin de los cmico, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2008, p.92 [English ed., Laugher. An essay on the meaning of the comic, 1900, reprinted Dover Publications, 2005]. Ibid.

Basada en la obra de / Cradle in the work of DApresa

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Alimentador de pjaros, 2011

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Fernando Snchez Castillo Mtodo del discurso, CAC Mlaga, 2011. Panormica de la exposicin / Installation view

De izquierda a derecha / From left to right

Method on the Discourse, two rotating, 2011 Method on the Discourse, two crossing, 2011 Method on the Discourse, until the brush has run out of paint 2, 2011 Method on the Discourse, until the brush has run out of paint 1, 2011

De izquierda a derecha / From left to right Mtodo del discurso, 2011 (DVD) Evento Bordeaux, 2010 Pegasus dance, 2007 (DVD)

De izquierda a derecha / From left to right

Method on the Discourse, until the brush has run out of paint 1, 2011
Miura 41 (robot, GEDEX)

Method on the Discourse, throwing eggs exploding balloons, 2011

De izquierda a derecha / From left to right Mtodo del discurso I, II, III, IV, 2011 Method on the Discourse, canon shots, 2011

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De izquierda a derecha / From left to right Ready made reconstructed, 2011 Paseando por las calles de Mlaga, 2011 (Obra de Ricardo Manrique / Ricardo Manriques work) Ready made rescued, 2011

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Panormica de la exposicin / Installation view

Pegasus dances, 2007

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Mtodo del discurso, 2011

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lista de obras / List of Works

FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Alimentador de pjaros, 2011 Bronce / Bronze 185 x 60 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Method on the Discourse, two rotating, 2011 Acrlico sobre lienzo / Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Method on the Discourse, two crossing, 2011 Acrlico sobre lienzo / Acrylic on canvas 150 x 1000 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Method on the Discourse, until the brush has run out of paint 1, 2011 Acrlico sobre lienzo / Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Method on the Discourse, until the brush has run out of paint 2, 2011 Acrlico sobre lienzo / Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Evento Bordeaux, 2010 Bronce / Bronze 800 x 120 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Method on the Discourse, throwing eggs exploding balloons, 2011 Tcnica mixta sobre lienzo / Mixed media on canvas 200 x 200 cm

FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Mtodo del discurso I, II, III, IV, 2011 Hierro / Iron Dimensiones variables / Variable dimensions FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Method on the Discourse, canon shots, 2011 Acrlico sobre lienzo / Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Ready made reconstructed, 2011 Tcnica mixta / Mixed media Dimensiones variables / Variable dimensions RICARDO MANRIQUE Paseando por las calles de Mlaga, 2011 leo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas 81 x 65 cm FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Ready made rescued, 2011 Tcnica mixta / Mixed media Dimensiones variables / Variable dimensions FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Pegasus dance, 2007 DVD 12:14 En cooperacin con/ With cooperation of Politie Rotterdam-Rijnmond Verkeerspolitie Bureau Conflict en Crisisbeheersing Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties Landelijke Faciliteit Rampenbestrijding Produccin / Produced by Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten Over het IJ festival 2007 EQUIPO / CREW Camioneros / Truck performers: Frans Ohmstede, Rob Oostrum, Rene Knape, Ro Gajadhar, Olaf Rogier, Edwin Ouwerkerk

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Producer / Productor: Robbert Jan Blekemolen Director de cmara / Camera director: Cristina Lucas Cmara / Camera: Ruben van der Broeke Segundo cmara / Second camera: Yahyah Jusufi Editor/ Editor: Michiel de Wit Asistente de rodaje / Shooting assistance: Pieter Lammers Gra / Crane: Eijgenraam Hoogwerkers Rotterdam FERNANDO SNCHEZ CASTILLo Mtodo del discurso, 2011 DVD 22:04 En cooperacin con / With cooperation of Direccin General de la Guardia Civil Jefatura de Unidades Especiales y de Reserva Servicio de Desactivacin de Explosivos y Defensa NRDQ Guardia Civil - Comandancia de Mlaga - GEDEX Guardia Civil - Comandancia de Granada - GEDEX Miura 41 & 57 Director ejecutivo / Executive director: Fernando Snchez Castillo Produccin / Produced by: CAC Mlaga Director de Cmara / Camera director: Cristina Lucas Editor: Ral silva

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Fernando Snchez Castillo

(Madrid, 1970) Vive y trabaja en Madrid / Lives and works in Madrid

2002

NIHIL OBSTAT, Galera Max Estrella, Madrid Tremblez Tyrans Los Castillos, Alcorcn, Madrid
2000

EXPOSICIONES INDIVIDUALES / SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011

Galerie Romain Larivire, Pars, Francia

Mtodo del Discurso, CAC Mlaga, Centro de Arte Contemporneo de Mlaga

2010

EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS (SELECCIN) / GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2010

PhotoEspaa, Sala Minerva, CBA, Madrid

2009

Divertimento, Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid Carpe Diem Lisboa, Portugal Los reyes no son los padres, Espai 4, Mallorca
2008

The Unresolved, Vleeshal, Middleburg, Paises Bajos Didctica, Galeria Juan Sili, Santander
2007

Afuera, CCE Cordoba, Argentina La Osada del Bufon, Centro Cultural Torrente Ballester, Pontevedra The People United Will Never Be Defeated, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rterdam, Paises Bajos Libertad, Igualdad, Fraternidad, Centro Huarte de Arte Contemporaneo, Navarra Monument to Transformation, Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb, Croacia
2009

Abajo la inteligencia, MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporneo de Castilla y Len, Len cole Rgionale des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, Francia Parti de la Peur, Centre dArt Contemporain, Ginebra, Suiza El Tesoro del Caudillo, DNB, msterdam, Paises Bajos El Tesoro del Duque de Alba, ABN Amor, msterdam, Paises Bajos
2006

Bourdeaux Biennal, Burdeos, Francia Colossal, Museum Kalkriese, Bramche-Kalkreise, Alemania Monument to Transformation 8 Tranzit, Prague Gallery, Praga, Repblica Checa Mi Vida Col Musac, Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungra Husped Collecctin Musac en el MNBA (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes), Buenos Aires, Argentina Imaginar, Historiar, CA2M, Mstoles, Madrid
2008

Ieder het zijne Stedelijk, Museum Schiedam, Rterdam, Paises Bajos Manu Militari, CASM, Centre dArt Santa Mnica, Barcelona MARTa, Herford Museum, Herford, Alemania Cuaderno de ciudad, Universidad Pblica de Navarra, Pamplona
2003

A cada uno lo suyo, Fundaci Espais dArt Contemporani, Gerona A caballo, Caja San Fernando, Sevilla Anamnesis, La Casa Encendida, Madrid

3 Biennale of Bucharest, Rumana Borders, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rterdam, Paises Bajos Eurasia: Geographic Cross-overs in Art, MART (Museo dArte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto), Rovereto, Italia Lost Paradise- Der Blick des Engels, Centrum Paul Klee, Berna, Suiza Loss/Frlust Stiftelsen Wans Utstllningar, Knislinge, Suecia

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Sonsbeeck 2008: Grandeur Sonsbeeck International Sculpture Exhibition, Arnhem, Paises Bajos Espna 1957-2007. LArte Spagnola da Picasso, Mir e Tpies ai nostri giorni Palazzo Sant Elia, Palermo, Italia Monument to Transformation 7, Praga, Repblica Checa
2007

Antirrealismos: Spanish photomedia now, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia Bad Boys, 50 Biennale di Venezia, Venecia, Italia Monocanal, MNCARS, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid
2002

20-rsjubileum Stiftelsen Wans utstllningar, Knislinge, Suecia 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Estambul, Turqua Border Jam La Cuadratura del Cono, Encuentro Regional del Arte, ERA 2007, Montevideo, Uruguay Visions de Mediterranee, Carr dArt, Muse dArt Contemporain de Nmes, Nimes, Francia Simmels Gelik, msterdam, Paises Bajos
2006

Capital Confort Intervenciones en espacios pblicos de Alcorcn, Madrid Extreme Protection Nit Niu, Pollena, Mallorca
2001

Itinerarios, Fundacion Marcelino Botn, Santander ARCO 01, Galera Max Estrella y Open Spaces, Madrid
2000

Naked Life MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei) Taipei, Taiwan Madrid: entre procesos y redes, El guila, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid ARCO 06, Galera Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid
2005

Insumisiones, Fundacin Marcelino Botn, Santander Toy Stories, Sala Amads, InJuve, Madrid

OBRAS EN COLECCIONES PBLICAS / WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS ABN Amor, msterdam, Paises Bajos Caldic Collection, Rterdam, Paises bajos CAM, Caja Mediterraneo, Madrid Centro de las Artes, Ayto de Alcorcn, Madrid Consejera de Cultura, Gobierno de Cantabria FNAC, Fond National dArt Contemporain, Pars, Francia Foundation Jean Marc Salomon, Annency, Francia Fundacion ARCO, CGAC, Centro Galego de Arte Contempornea, Santiago de Compostela INJUVE, Instituto de la Juventud, Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales, Ayuntamiento de Alcorcn, Madrid MUDAM, Luxemburg, Luxemburgo MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporneo de Castilla y Len, Junta de Castilla y Len, Len Obra Social, Caja Madrid Rabobank, msterdam, Paises Bajos Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, msterdam, Paises Bajos Spencer Churchill collection GB, Reino Unido UNED, Universidad Nacional de Educacin a Distancia Madrid

Open Ateliers 2005, Rijksakademie, msterdam, Paises Bajos From Picasso to Plensa, The Alburquerque Museum, Nuevo Mxico, EE. UU. Centro Cultural de Espaa Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay Frieze Art Fair London, Londres, Reino Unido
2004

Tel Aviv Bienal, Tel Aviv, Israel XXVI Bienal Internacional de So Paulo, Brasil (Representando a Espaa), BIACS , I Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporneo de Sevilla, Sevilla The Failure of Beauty, The Beauty of Failure, Fundaci Joan Mir, Barcelona XXVIII Bienal de Arte de Pontevedra, Pontevedra
2003

The Real Royal Trip, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, MoMA, Long Island, Nueva York, EE. UU.

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