QA XXX (P3)
24 November 2017 - 10 March 2018
Exhibition extended until March 10th
Galeria Quadrado Azul | Lisbon
    

QA XXX (P4)
25 November 2017 - 24 February 2018
Exhibition extended until 24th February
Galeria Quadrado Azul | Porto
    

Ana Santos | Arlindo Silva | Artur Barrio | Francisco Tropa | Gonçalo Sena | Hugo Canoilas | Isabel Carvalho | Isabel Ribeiro | José de Guimarães | Paulo Nozolino | Pedro Tropa | Rigo | Zulmiro de Carvalho

Curated by Miguel von Hafe Pérez
   

After the commemoration of the Galeria Quadrado Azul’s 30th anniversary, in November, 2016, via the QAXXX P1 and P2 exhibitions, in the galleries of Lisbon and Porto, respectively, the second phase of the celebrations is now about to commence, with the exhibitions QAXXX P3 and P4.

In last year’s exhibitions, the guest curator, Miguel von Hafe Pérez, selected works from the Gallery’s collection. But this second stage of exhibitions is based on a different methodology. A select group of artists who work with the Gallery have been asked to respond to a challenge launched by the curator in the form of a text-manifesto:
    

WHAT CAN ART ACHIEVE? 

We live at a civilisational crossroads. Numerous factors are contributing to a tense perception of reality: from climate change, to dumbing down of society, to the zero capacity of politics to serve as an instrument of intelligent and sensitive governability, impotence in the face of atomised, individualistic and fanatical terrorism, the imposition of unbridled capitalism and growing digitalisation of interpersonal relationships. All these factors are converging towards a more or less generalised feeling of restlessness.

Artistic creation addresses such a confrontation with the world around us in a more or less literal manner, whether through direct involvement or critical distancing. Sometimes we confuse that which is falsely entitled “political art” with that which might be called pamphleteering art. In its supreme expression, art is always a political gesture.

Art is political in the sense of making a deliberate incursion into the universe of preexisting images and ideas. By wanting to add to this universe, the artist inevitably assumes a position (if only in terms of wrestling with the "political" regime of the images). Art is also political, because in a society that is dumbing down at breathtaking speed, asserting oneself as an artist is, first and foremost, an act of courage, unless exclusively perceived as a mechanism to foster material gain or social climbing.

Who can remember a public television station that used to broadcast conversations with Hannah Arendt or Gilles Deleuze that lasted over an hour? Where are the artists and intellectuals when key contemporary issues are discussed in the public arena? They are increasingly confined to a rarefied space dedicated to culture. This vicious spiral has undermined the credibility of those who can most knowingly lead us through this complex universe, since they are more attentive to the key issues that can be raised, instead of offering heinous, easily intelligible, sound bites.

Sometimes I question myself. I wonder whether it's all worth it. And, essentially, I wonder whether I’m perhaps deluding myself. Then I think that the very fact that I raise such issues may actually reveal a degree of clairvoyance and humility that continues to be necessary to remain critically alert in relation to everything around me.

I believe that I’m right in thinking that such existential questioning may be extended to the individual practice pursed by artists in their work. And that raises another issue: what can art achieve? Without seeking an answer to this question, I launch the following challenge: the chance to present unpublished work(s) for the exhibition that will conclude the commemoration of the Galeria Quadrado Azul’s thirtieth anniversary. One may remark that the context isn’t the most appropriate. But - as I believe was
demonstrated in the first two exhibitions of these commemorations - a gallery can sometimes create the necessary context, to the extent that the exhibited works pertinently affirm themselves as not being necessarily commercial.

Miguel von Hafe Pérez