Accessing a nightclub during the day is like entering a secret place, almost forbidden, which can even have a morbid point", admits gallerist Joana Roda, director of Bombon Projects and promoter together with Dessislava Pirinchieva of Clubs, art a la pista , a circuit of ephemeral exhibitions that during this weekend and the following will open during the day nine rooms in l'Hospitalet and Barcelona, with an important novelty in relation to the two previous editions, and that is that access will be Free. Roda recalls that the project was born as a response to the nostalgia of stepping on a dance floor again after months of confinement and closed doors due to the pandemic. The context has changed and, therefore, the project as well, but the idea that animated it in 2021 is still the same: to open the clubs when they are closed and claim them as places to meet, to exchange experiences and freedom.
Apart from the free entry – in return, the halls will open the bars so that attendees can have a vermouth at noon or a beer in the middle of the afternoon–, Arts a la pista expands and diversifies the offer two consecutive weekends, each of which will focus on a different geographic area. Today and tomorrow, the proposals will take place in the live music halls of Hospitalet (El Pumarejo, FOC, Sala Salamandra and Sala River), and next, December 16 and 17, in those of Barcelona (Freedonia, Meteor , Sala Apolo, Sidecar and Parallel 62). "People tended to stay in Barcelona and it was very difficult for them to go to l'Hospitalet; so we decided to split it up, see what happens. Places like l'Apolo are always popular, but I think that for many it will also be very attractive to come to l'Hospitalet and discover its clubs, which are much more underground", says Roda.
The doors open at eleven in the morning. Once inside, the audience will discover that the paint on the walls is more chipped than they imagined or that the smell of the crowd that danced there the night before is still there, but to one degree or another all that will happen from that moment on the track will have to do with clubbing culture. Obviously, there will be no installations or paintings on the walls that could interfere with the musical programming of the rooms, but video creations, performances and sound works of art starring 24 national and international artists. "The common thread is the body, understood as a receptacle or as a source generating content", points out Roda.
In this edition there is no shortage of international stars, such as Bruce Nauman, whose piece lent by Macba Dance or exercise on the perimeter of a square (Square dance) can be seen, in which the American artist involves his body in the creative void of his studio to draw a square. The filmmaker Julian Rosefeldt (author of Manifesto, with Cate Blanchet) pays tribute to Buñuel in Deep gold, in which he reinterprets one of the chapters of The Golden Age. The British David Haines will present Dereviled, a video creation that uses images of exorcisms of gays and lesbians in evangelical churches in the United States and reverses them to turn them into a club anthem. And the Italian Vanessa Beecroft, whose living paintings of naked bodies have earned her both a legion of admirers and critics, will show a performance made in Sicily about violence against women.
Antoni Hervàs will screen the post-pandemic cabaret show T(Ouch!) and there will also be works of sound art, such as Yegua-yeta-yuta, by Mercedes Azpilicueta, in which the artist recites a list of insults and pejorative expressions referring to women in Buenos Aires street slang. The artist Isabel Lewis will guide the audience to move around the dance floor attentively listening and the artist and DJ Joven de la Perla will present Dildos rosas de dos cabezas, a poem written entirely in a discotheque (from the dance floor to the lavabos) in collaboration with the musician CEM.
Already in the performative field, Joan Morey's Díptic and the action of the electronic pop group SOSUN.dance stand out, a celebration of the funniest music of the eighties as part of New Year's celebration. Clubs will end on the 17th at Paral·lel 62 with Diversorium, a party where people with disabilities will be welcome and which will have critic and columnist Bob Pop as master of ceremonies.
The cycle is organized by the
