The University of Alicante Museum (MUA) is pleased to present this exhibition, showcasing the work of students who took the Miguel Hernández University Master’s Degree in Art Projects and Research, delivered on the Altea campus, during the 2020/2021 academic year.
The artists participating in the display are Mirella Macias, Marina Díaz-Caneja, Víctor Miralles and Vicente Miña. Each of them chose a lecturer to work with, respectively, José Maldonado, Amparo Alepuz, Javi Moreno and Rocío Villalonga.
Their latest artworks are shown at this interdisciplinary exhibition, which marks the completion of their master’s degree. We will discover the main processes through which their work was created and the outcomes achieved at the end of their higher training in art.
As noted above, each of the four projects on display has been undertaken jointly by a student and a lecturer.
(1) "BIZUMÉAME", using the mess and chaos of a teenager’s bedroom, an abandoned house and a studio, the artists / javi moreno and Víctor Miralles define a room as a place where we can keep track of repeated actions. References to gestures or traces of performative rites carried out over and over again, generation after generation, in environments of gamer masculinity. The artists examine issues such as the ableist relationship gamers establish with technology, the objectification of female bodies and the demonisation of dissidence in closed circles that are almost like lodges: parts of a process that generates new “flesh”, new would-be tough guys. Artistic creation, the winner-loser mindset and the homosocial teaching-learning process between master and disciple are all addressed in this video installation, in which both the lecturer and the student explore the imaginaries they share.
(2) Marina Díaz Caneja and Amparo Alepuz present “SECRET SOCIETY MAKE UP. Videoart preproduction”. In this installation, both artists show the preproduction work for Tráiler, a video art project Marina Díaz Caneja is currently working on. A fake documentary, Tráiler will be included in Amparo Alepuz’s “SECRET SOCIETY MAKE UP”, a series of spy micro stories in which the characters use seduction as a tool of manipulation in order to uncover secrets. The stories are staged in installations made up of small paintings, crates, found objects and audio-visual pieces. The work recounts the preproduction process for the audio-visual piece that is included in this fictional story, inspired by real characters.
(3) Vicente Miña and Rocío Villalonga’s project, titled “MEMORIAS, AUSENCIAS Y DERIVAS”, involves an artistic discourse in which six pieces (three by each artist) engage in dialogue. “#Movimiento1_excavación”, “#Movimiento2_transanalogía” y “#Movimiento3_WalterBenjamin” are all part of “Memoria, sitios y derivas”, an artistic project by Vicente Miña, whereas “Los otros. Miradas #1,#2,#3” are included in Rocío Villalonga’s “Memoria, conciencia y conflicto” series. Six works where the artists take opposite, yet at the same time similar, approaches to the concept of historical memory. The project is structured around three pillars: the right to the truth, the right to reparation and the right to justice.
(4) Mireia Macias and José Maldonado have created “Que le corten la cabeza¡! (que le saquen los ojos¡!) y viceversa”. The project revolves around tools and units of measurement: the head as a benchmark against which to measure both what is ours and what belongs to someone else; a person’s countenance as the interface for measuring anything, whether belonging to someone else or to ourselves. They are detached from each other – a reversible and swollen surface. Remains and volumes that tell us of masks, of how their elements are arranged; of a world of appearances and wishes: impossible perfections, identities as longed for as they are ephemeral. A spy game in which trails and clues lead nowhere but to the trails and clues themselves: the search is what counts; therefore, it is the measure. What remains, the work, is the rest… of the show.
MUA becomes a space for reflection – a celebration of the latest trends in contemporary art, of emerging artists and their mentors, allowing us to learn their innovative artistic languages.
