Thermal Time presents a series of works that explore the notion of time from the very presence of the human body. Artists Charbel-joseph H. Boutros, Nicolas Bacal, Marcus Coates, William Mackrell and Jaime Pitarch are brought together in this exhibition to dig into the concept of time through sculpture, video, installation and performance. Throughout the show, there is a sense of trying to grasp life, repeatedly referring to the movement of the body as a register of the passing of time. The works unavoidably reflect on the hard intent of grasping time through their physical fragility, ephemeral condition or embodied struggle.
In Jaime Pitarch’s Work in Progress, two circular shapes made with Judo belts hang on the wall next to the other. The circle on the left shows a spiral of belts starting with the white belt in its centre, and progressively followed by the remaining colours used in the...conventional sport ranking system. Acting as a metaphor for the process of growing up and specifically questioning the alleged improvement of the self over time, the inverted process is then depicted on the right, offering this one as an equally valuable learning option. Through the title, the artist depicts life as a continuum, the belts quietly alluding to the human body that they used to surround. Another work titled Qui Custodiet Ipsos Custodes (Emerald), Pitarch almost inverts this, surrounding a paint can entirely in layers of what was originally it’s total content. Time is marked heavily by the arduous task taken to complete the work, questioning the arguable futility of various kinds of human labour.
A repetitive action is also recorded in William Mackrell’s piece Going to the gallery. By the entrance to the gallery, an entangled pile of rolled paper is covered end to end with a repeated hand-written mantra. The cluster of paper seems to acknowledge a performance just missed: the artist’s walk from his studio to the gallery dragging a roll of paper in which he repeatedly wrote the words ‘going to the gallery’. Here performance is not just a one time event, a video or a photograph, but a physical and tangible manifestation of time.
Another performance memorialised in the exhibition is Charbel-joseph H. Boutros’ s piece Inside Sculpture. An aspirin lies on a marble shelf in front of an A4 paper with the written sentence: “Yesterday I took an aspirin. Not for healing any kind of sickness, but, merely, for a sculptural manoeuvre. To thin my blood for a period of four hours.”
In Marcus Coates’ video Self-portrait as Time, a minimal action is taken to meticulous lengths as the artist’s finger insistently follows the second hand on his wristwatch. Here the performance lasted for a total of 12h, the video now acting as an accurate clock and creating the illusion that his body is directing the passing of time. After many hours of focus he said that “at times the distinction between me and the watch disappeared and I fully believed I was moving the second hand and had the measure of time”.
Nicolás Bacal’s Untitled is a fragile sculpture. The work is composed of a blue helium balloon tied to the hand of a common office clock, firmly impeding its ticking. While there is a mocking sense of the fantasy of stopping time, the work also requires a human presence, it’s maintenance dependent on daily inflation of the balloon by gallery staff.
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros was born in Mount Lebanon in 1981 and lives and works between Beirut and Paris. In his work invisibility is charged with intimate, geographical and historical layers; finding poetic lines that extend beyond the realm of existing speculations and realities.Being born in the middle of the Lebanese war, his art is not engaged in an explicit political and historical reflection, but is more accurately haunted by the said political and historical reflection. H. Boutros was a resident at the Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris and a researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie, the Netherlands. His work has been shown internationally : The 12th International Istanbul Biennial, Turkey; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Centre Pompidou – Metz (upcoming); CCS Bard College, New York; 3rd Bahia Biennial, Brasil; 1st Yinchuan Biennial, China; 104, Paris; MAM-BA Museum of Modern Art, Salvador, Brasil; CCA Warsaw, Poland; More Konzeption Conception Now, Morsbroich Museum, Germany; La ou Commence le jour, LAM, Museum of modern and contemporary art Lilles; Maraya art center, Sharjah; Marres, the Netherlands; Fons Welters Gallery, Amsterdam; Frieze, London; Fiac, Paris; LISTE, Basel; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Beirut Art Center, Lebanon. His permanent installation ‘Sueur d’etoile’, realised in collaboration with opera dancer Étoile, Marie-agnes Gillot, inaugurated in July 2016 and remains on view at the Palais de Tokyo. His works is held in public and private collections the collections of CNAP, Paris and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. H.Boutros is represented by Grey Noise, Dubai, and Galeria Jaqueline Martins, Sao Paulo.
William Mackrell studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College (2016) and BA Painting at Chelsea College of Art, London (2005). Selected solo and group exhibitions include; Hold Up, The RYDER, London, Door for a day, Krinzinger Projekte, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2017), Steam horses, The RYDER, London, PerForma FOLD Gallery, London (2015), N(l)ight Cuadro Fine Art Gallery, Dubai (2014), Infinite Jest, Dundee Contemporary Arts, UK (2012), Innovators 3 Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne (2010). Mackrell has recently been nominated for the Rose Art Museum Emerging Fund Prize and awarded the Manchester Contemporary Fund with the acquisition of his work to Manchester Art Gallery. Mackrell has recently completed a residency at Krinzinger Projekte, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna and is preparing a solo booth project in ‘Opening’ at ARCO Madrid with The RYDER, London in February 2018. Public collections include Manchester Art Gallery, UK, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, NY, Goldsmiths College, London, Krinzinger Collection, Vienna, Justin Art House Museum, Melbourne. William Mackrell is represented by The RYDER, London.
Jaime Pitarch lives and works in Barcelona. He received a BA from the Chelsea College of Art, London in 1993, and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London in 1995. Solo exhibitions include Centre d’art Tecla Sala, Barcelona (2017), The RYDER Projects, London (2016), àngels barcelona, Barcelona (2016, 2013, 2009, 2004,1997); Galeria Fúcares , Madrid (2013, 2008); Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York (2013, 2009, 2006) or Galerija Vartai, Lithuania, 2011. Selected group exhibitions include: Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Portugal; Artium, Spain; MASS MoCA, Massachusets EEUU; Manifesta 7, Bolzano Italy; Centre d’Art Santa Mónica, Barcelona; Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; Carré d’Art Contemporain, Nimes, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). Works held in collections include the MACBA collection, Collection Gensollen, Marseille, La Caixa collection, Artium, the Bergé collection, the Museum Patio Herreriano or the Carré d’Art Contemporain, Nimes.
Marcus Coates was born in 1968 in London, UK. In 2008 he was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award and in 2009 he won the Daiwa Art Prize. In 2013 Coates was a shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square artwork (2015/16). Recent exhibitions include: The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind, Hauser & Wirth Somerset; As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits & Mystics, Irish Museum of Modern Art; This Is A Voice, Wellcome Collection, London; The Trip, Serpentine Gallery, London; Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection, Tokyo Station Gallery, Japan; Station to Station, Barbican Art Centre, London; Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London; MANIFESTA 7 and Venice Biennale. Coates lives and works in London.
Nicolás Bacal (Buenos Aires, 1985) is a musician and visual artist; he graduated in electroacoustic composition from the National University of Quilmes. He has done several workshops and training programs in visual arts at the Fundacion Telefónica and Centro Cultural Rojas. Since 2007 he has worked as a visual artist. He has been a fellow at the Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas (2009), the artists’ program from the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (2012) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, USA (2014). He has participated in various group exhibitions and received recognition from a number of organizations, outstanding among which are the Mamba-Fundación Telefónica (2006), MacStation Paradigma Digital (2007), selection for the Fundación Klemm award (2007 and 2009), and third prize in the projects category of Mamba-Fundación Telefónica (2009). He has had solo exhibitions in Buenos Aires (gallery Alberto Sendros; 2008, 2010 and 2012), Paris (JTM Gallery in 2009 and Gb Agency in 2013) and Sao Paulo (gallery Vermelho in 2013). In 2011 he participated in the 12th Istanbul Biennial and in 2013 in the 9th Mercosul Biennial.
Entrada actualizada el el 12 ene de 2020
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