Time travels and the (de) construction of contemporary myths

by Lorena Muñoz-Alonso,
first published at selfselector.

Throughout this itinerary, I would like to navigate through the HAMACA catalogue in search of traces or residues from other times and voices.

I am looking to identify the little or great homages that artists make to other “artists-legends” or to the “landmark moments” in their history (understood both on a collective and an individual level). 

Image: El Enemigo, 2010. Usue Arrieta y Vicente Vázquez

What I will engage with here is the unravelling of nostalgic impulses in art, led by a (perhaps unhealthy?) curiosity to get to the bottom of the archetypes that have come into play in the creative process of these artists.

In his “Mythologies”, Barthes said that a myth is nothing other than a distortion of history; a new ‘discourse’, born through the appropriation of a previously existing image. This re-writing of a sign is in itself a creative act. It isn’t just a cultural appropriation, but a translation or update of meaning through time. This temporal dislocation, intrinsic to the act of incorporating elements from other socio-historical contexts, is also fundamental in this stroll through the catalogue, where the evocations of the past, explorations of the present, and fantasies of the future merge unevenly, provoking a sense of vertigo towards a continuous and never-ending present.

HAMACA is a Barcelona-based distribution platform of Spanish media & video art. Explore their catalogue here