Film marathon: Paul McCarthy
22 — 23 May 2017, 6 pm
— Video performances from the 1970s and 1980s
- Artists
- Paul McCarthy
- Venue
- Aribau Multicines Sala 2
- A project by
- LOOP Barcelona and Fundació Gaspar.
- Price
- 10.5 €
- Tickets & register
- www.grupbalana.com/es/cine/cartelera/paul-mccarthy:-video-performances-from-the-1970s-and-1980s
- Language
- English
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Besides the monographic retrospective dedicated to multidisciplinary practitioner Paul McCarthy, the cinema Aribau will host a marathon of video performance proposals created by the American artist between 1970s and 1980s.
For the second year in a row, LOOP Barcelona is collaborating with the Fundació Gaspar with the aim of expanding the Festival’s main focus to the present days. In the context of the monographic exhibition that the Fundació Gaspar will dedicate to American artist Paul McCarthy, the cinema Aribau will host an outstanding selection of video-performance pieces made by the artist during the 1970s and 1980, where he breaks the limits of painting by using his body as a brush or a canvas. McCarthy’s work criticizes the media and American society with a sarcastic and ironic language, penetrating the limits of sexuality, hypocrisy and the norms of the consumer society. The performances made by McCarthy use his body as a depository of social taboos generating a work that bothers and shocks the viewer and at the same time positions itself as a reference in the contemporary art scene.
Aribau Multicines Sala 2
- 18:00h
- Presentation by Paul McCarthy
- 18:30h
- Black and White III 79 min.
- 19:50
- Interval
- 20:15h
- Color Compilation, 1974, duration 46: 21 min.
- 21:15h
- Experimental Dancer, Edit #2, 1975, duration 19:25 min.
- 21:35h
- Rocky, 1976, duration 21:30 min.
- 22:00
- Interval
- 22:15h
- Sailor's Meat - Sailor's Delight Edit #2, 1975, duration 44:20 min.
- 23:00h
- Tubbing, 1975, duration 26:59 min.
- 23:30h
- Class Fool - Split Screen, 1976, duration 32:13 min.
Paul McCarthy
- Artist
1945, Salt Lake City
“Paul McCarthy was born in 1945 in Salt Lake City. He studied at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City (1968–69); earned a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1969) and an MFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1972); and was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (1984–2003). Paul McCarthy’s video-taped performances and provocative multimedia installations lampoon polite society, ridicule authority, and bombard the viewer with a sensory overload, of often sexually-tinged, violent imagery.
With irreverent wit, McCarthy often takes aim at cherished American myths and icons—Walt Disney, the Western, and even the Modern Artist—adding a touch of malice to subjects that have been traditionally revered for their innocence or purity. Absent or present, the human figure is a constant element in his work, whether in the form of bodies in action, satirical caricatures, or animistic sculptures; as the residue of a private ritual; or as architectural space left uninhabited for the viewer to occupy. Whether conflating real-world political figures with fantastical characters such as Santa Claus, or treating erotic and abject content with frivolity and charm, McCarthy’s work confuses codes, mixes high and low culture, and provokes an analysis of fundamental beliefs.
His work has been shown in major exhibitions at California College of the Arts, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2009); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2008); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2007); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2006); and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2005); among others. He has participated in many international events, including the Berlin Biennial (2006); SITE Santa Fe (2004); Whitney Biennial (1995, 1997, 2004); and the Venice Biennale (1993, 1999, 2001). Paul McCarthy lives and works in Altadena, California.”
— Art 21
last update 3 April, 2017
