PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT

I s i d o r o V a l c á r c e l M e d i n a
L a w r e n c e W e i n e r
I b r o n A r a n b e r r i
A n t o n i M u n t a d a s
D a v i d L a m e l a s

Madrid 1 0 . 0 4 . 1 4 – 2 1 . 0 6 . 1 4

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 1)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 2)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 3)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 4)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 5)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 6)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 7)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 8)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 9)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 10)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 11)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 12)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 13)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 14)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 15)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 16)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 17)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 18)

Parra & Romero, exhibition: PLACED SOMEPLACE WITH INTENT (fig. 19)

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P a r r a & R o m e r o © 2 0 2 6 A L L R I G H T S R E S E R V E D

“The Cultural distance between one’s native language and a foreign language, makes the foreign language into a strange object, – experienced from afar and not from within. For a Postwar, Dutch audience American English signifies Hollywood movies or pop music or technology or imperialism, – and never just a language. To translate then an American text into Dutch is an attempt to naturalize the language for a Dutch audience. Translation is the destruction of exoticism in language”.

A Translation From One Language To Another. Rudi Fuchs, Van Abbemuseum, 1976

Parra & Romero is pleased to present his first exhibition dedicated to the American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner (Bronx, Nueva York, Estados Unidos, 1942). A solo show within a group show, which intents no hierarchy. For this exhibition, he will be sharing space with another four artists, very close in his practice and to him personally, Five different languages:Ibon Aranberri (Itziar-Deba, Basque Country, 1969), David Lamelas(A Pobra de Trives, Ourense, Galicia, 1946), Antoni Muntadas (Barcelona, Catalonia, 1942) and Isidoro Valcárcel Medina (Murcia, 1937).

Lawrence Weiner’s texts have appeared in all sorts of places over the last five decades and although he sees himself as a sculptor rather than a conceptualist, he is among the trailblazers of the 1960s to present art as language. He defines his sculptural medium simply as ‘language + the material referred to’, in the sense that language is a material for construction.

The intention of this show is to extend the limits of language into a particular moment. Weiner’s works (Statements) may be read as descriptions of facts but equally as instructions for action, they are not just concrete poetry well formulated. The socio political context behind formulates the strongest contact with the public.

In Spain, living perhaps the most demotivated moments since the last decades, younger generations suffer the inability of the transformation. Even an era of knowledge and information, youth is trapped in a circle, not finding a reason of existence. This context into the exhibition means no populism, it is openness, freedom and understanding, it is about culture and progress, as Weiner would say, “A spiral as an aspiration”.

For this exhibition Weiner sets out a sentence ‘Placed someplace with intent’. The other artists take possession of this sentence and interpret its sense, translating Weiner’s words into their native language. Into Spanish by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Basque by Ibon Aranberri, Catalonian by Antoni Muntadas and Galician by David Lamelas.

At the same time, each one of the participant artists presents one piece, also objectual-textual in his native language. The idea is illustrating his participation on the dialogue and interpretation process. This works have in common a play on words, the immateriality of art and the conversion of words into objects, as well as reflecting their own practices.

An exhibition is a placement in the world; it is a participation in the world, it is all about finding a work that is in dialogue with the world at that particular moment. It is about finding a basic, universal problem. This participation is two-sided and concerns not only the making of the work, but the viewing as well. Weiner’ challenge the viewer to think about how he can incorporate the work and the questions they provoke into his life. As the other artists in the show, the universal questions posed by the artist should be answered by the viewer. This conversation with the public is most important. The reason for this is that when the viewer incorporates the work into his life, it functions as art.