"Los Encargados" or
"The Artist in Charge of the Spectator's Mind"

Tabea von Ow

The latest exhibition at the Galería Helga de Alvear in Madrid, named “los encargados”, “the ones in charge”, is a collaboration between the gallery and the two Madrid-originated artists Jorge Galindo and Santiago Sierra. While Sierra, who caused a lot of sensation in 2010 by not accepting the Spanish national prize for contemporary artists as it “exploits the prestige of the prizewinning in favour of the state”, is mainly known for his ever provoking performances, Galindo has been majorly noticed for his fierce, yet chaotic “unreal paintings” as called by the artist himself. Despite their different approaches, the two are united in their commitment to thematise social and political problems.
Collaborating for the first time, the artists constructed a combination of performance, video, painting and photography, always stressing criticism on the Spanish government. The first part of the installation consists of seven huge realistic black and white oil-paintings hanging upside-down, showing portraits of King Juan Carlos I. and the six prime-ministers of Spain who have been ruling the country after the Franco-dictatorship up until now. Furthermore, there is a video, showing in a funeral-like manner a convoy of seven black Mercedes-cars with the upside-down paintings mounted on top, driving slowly through Madrid’s Gran Vía, accentuated by the Polish working-class song “Warszawianka”. In addition, there are photo-stills made during the process of the video-shoot.

Showing the “ones in charge” in such a humiliating way as upside down in a funeral procession makes it clear that the artists have little sympathy for the Spanish government. Indeed, this country has been lead right into crisis by “los encargados” and the artists are calling on opposition against the politicians, which, in the eyes of Galindo and Sierra, have all been working for the same interests as during the right-wing dictatorship and are the main cause for the decline of the economic and social success of Spain. For this reason, the gallery quotes on their website the first democratic declaration from Paris, 1793, saying "When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people […] the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties." The message is clear: People of Spain, rise up and revolt! At first sight, all seems rather deconstructive and yet a bit dull, but Galindo and Sierra have made more of this hot tempered topic. Nothing has been left to chance, everything bears a reference or a meaning. So can the Mercedes cars in the video be taken as a hint of the influence of Germany within the EU, driving Spain on its last journey. Or the revolutionary song to it, which, in the Spanish version, was very popular during the Civil war. Or the mirror-inverted and at times upside-down setting of the video, which gives it a touch of topsy-turvy world and brings up the question whether it’s actually the politics carrying the world on their heads or vice versa. The possibilities of finding clues to criticism within the artwork seem endless.

Although Galindo and Sierra come from two different areas within the art-world, the spectator finds himself in a remarkable entity of aesthetic expression mixed with political message and a good portion of provocation and sarcasm. As the meaning appears obvious at first glimpse, it actually has more to it and stimulates the observer’s brain to think about what’s going on with this oh so praised principle of democracy... at least until he is harshly taken back to reality by the price of the installation – but that’s probably just what one has to expect when dealing with artists who have made provoking one of their main tasks!