Lluís Hortalà – Posar el dit a l’ull (A poke in the eye)
Posar el dit a l’ull (A poke in the eye) is a project that presents the work by Lluís Hortalà (Olot, Girona, 1959), which challenges so-called contemporaneity with resources from the pictorial tradition, based on vision as a mechanism for approaching the world. It operates conceptually, with a certain irony, on the structures that uphold thought and power. His work plays with appearance, acceptance of deception and the replication of reality, the techniques used in art to produce and reproduce images, mirage and the limits of trompe l’œil, optical illusion and imitation, the artifice.
What might seem to be a mere display of virtuosity is in fact a revulsive seeking to challenge us to reflect on the mechanisms of knowledge which cultural and social models are based on. In this sense, Hortalà critically questions the way in which modernity and the avant-garde facilitate or impede a reflection on contemporary artistic practice; or, as Jacques Rancière states, the relationship between aesthetics and politics. His work is not limited to a simple historicity, but instead takes place in the rupture generated in the forms of production and visibility of the work.
Exhibition curated by Teresa Grandas.