This exhibition project takes up the title Tragicomedy , in a direct allusion to Fernando de Rojas' La Celestina , or Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea . The intention of curators Javier Marroquí and David Arlandis is no other but to use the composite term of tragedy and comedy in order to talk about one of the most visible traits in contemporary art: the use of humour as a vehicle for the communication of social content. Or, to put it differently, the deployment of strategies such as irony, satire, parody, and many other narrative possibilities akin to comedy, with the aim of producing a social critique, set themselves aside from the aesthetising of tragic realities.

In the various studies on humour, three theories tend to recurr. One of them claims that laughter and the comic take place thanks to an unexpected contrast, and incoherence, a situation in which two opposites clash. Another theory states that the comic is produced by a feeling of superiority on behalf of he who laughs. And the last theory would point out that in order for laughter to break out, we need, in Bergson's terms, “a momentary anaesthetising of the heart”. That is, moral considerations should be set aside from humour. This, which might seem to contradict the notion of tragicomedy is in fact, what makes its very existence possible. Only this “momentary anaesthesia” allows for a message with a content, be it social, serious, or tragic, to be launched within the brief space of perception, and that the explosion of the comic can finally take place.

Many artists today believe that we beed different tools from the ones used in the last century in order to effectively engage the world's troubles. In their works, we very easily find a comic skin which, let it be said, has a great capacity for connecting to the public. Nevertheless, under this skin, and precisely thanks to it, we find different levels of reading which reveal the true intention of the piece.

Artists: Mauricio Dias & Walter Riedweg, François Bucher, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Gustavo Artigas, Yoshua Okon y Gabriela Golder.

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Mauricio Dias y Walter Riedweg
Funk Staden
2007

François Bucher
Severa Vigilancia
2007

Gustavo Artigas
Voto para demolición (Cádiz)
2008

Jennifer Allora y Guillermo Calzadilla
Returning a sound
2004

Yoshua Okon
Orillese a la Orilla
1999

Gabriela Golder
Concierto diurno
20O6