Donar un espai a la confusió
2017
With the collaboration of the translator: Miquel Cabal i Guarro
Installing a banner in an outer space.
Digital printing on canvas (500 x 75cm).
The members of the group Collective Actions met on the Firsanovka station, in the Moscow region, on the 28th January of 1977, to perform Slogan, which consisted of hanging a red banner between two trees. Their goal was to leave it there, just for wanderers to pass it by or see it from afar, without being able to determinate what it was exactly, where did that object come from, what was written on it and why. The banner could create a brief moment of confusion.
The sentence written on that banner was an excerpt from the book Nothing Happens, by Andrei Monastyrski, a member of Collective Actions. According to the most popular English version of that phrase, its meaning is “I DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING AND I ALMOST LIKE IT HERE, ALTHOUGH I HAVE NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS PLACE”. However, according to translator Miquel Cabal i Guarro, there is a subtle mistake in that translation. On the Russian sentence it is not written that “I DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING AND I ALMOST LIKE IT HERE, (…)” but “I DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING IS FINE, (…)”.
Following the confusion from the English version, we have made a banner for the Vic’s wanderers, on which we have written, if we haven’t made any mistake, that “I DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING AND I ALMOST LIKE THIS TEXT, ALTHOUGH I HAVE NEVER READ THESE WORDS BEFORE AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THEIR MEANING”.
My infinite thanks to: Miquel Cabal i Guarro, Irene Solà, Arnau Musach, H. Associació per a les Arts Contemporànies de Vic, Jordi (del Museu de l’Art de la Pell), Jordi Lafon, Carles Arimany, Jaume Mercader, Oriol Dot, Joan Dot, Blai Marginedas, Jaume Coll i Mariné, Marta Garolera, Eva Marichalar, Pep Musach, Ariadna Guiteras, Michael Lawton, Sergi Egea i tota la gent que ens vau acompanyar i ajudar a penjar la banderola al Parc de la Bassa de les Germanes Maristes, al costat del Museu de l’Art de la Pell de Vic, el dia 11/02/2017.