Alonso Gil. Singing My Troubles Away
Date: 21 July - 6 November 2011
Exhibition Session: Song as a Force of Social Transformation

Alonso Gil (1966) recalls having always regarded painting, and artistic practice in general, a valuable tool to provoke reflection and construct critical gazes at our surroundings. He produces his work in a space where legend, reality, experience, fantasy and denunciation come together, resorting to a range of media including painting, photography, music, publications, video, urban interventions, graffiti, actions, etc.

Some artists, though not musicians themselves, research and work with sound as just one more component of their work, attempting to place it in a new aesthetic dimension. Some of Alonso Gil's projects fit this description, although I would not say that he is a "sound artist" in the usual sense of the term. He is also interested in the latest artistic trends that seek to create multisensory effects.

From the moment Alonso Gil first settled in Seville in 1983, his eye was drawn to the figure of the flamenco hustler or street performer, and this curiosity was re-modernised in a dual sense. Born in the province of Badajoz, one of the natural boundaries of flamenco territory, Alonso's interest in capturing the intangible aspect of this atmosphere was more of an innate characteristic than something acquired over time. This was not the Romantic quest for exoticism-conveniently staged with background and props-that so appealed to European travellers. On the contrary, Alonso was determined to invert the traditional perspective. Some of his artworks revealed the contrast between this "collective" of foreigners-the tourists-and other kinds of foreign presences in our cities, such as immigrants, refugees or exiles.

While the quintessential predator that is the tourist entertains himself by consuming a standardised cultural difference, Alonso turns his attention to both the foreigners and to the displaced natives, those who have been overlooked or forgotten. These have lost their exotic appeal and ability to spark curiosity, and despite their authenticity they are an endangered species because there is no room for them in the spectacle of the cultural industry.

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION

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