PROPAGANDA AND SEMIOTICS IN JOSÉ CARLOS MARTINAT’S PROJECT
By Álvaro de Benito
The Madrid gallery Formato Cómodo presents the exhibition Sueño Bolivariano, Preludio I by José Carlos Martinat (Lima, Peru, 1974). The show, the first of two to be hosted by the space, reflects the initial stage of an ongoing project in which the Peruvian artist draws inspiration from Simón Bolívar and his route. Based on the propagandistic actions of the independence leader, the author seeks references in contemporary Latin American politics that allow him, through the establishment of parallels, to reinterpret its messages, spaces, and intentions.
The gallery hosts a series of wall paintings taken from urban areas that serve as an appropriate representation of the social and political pulse. Beyond the semiotics inherent in the message, Martinat also plays with the meaning of presenting it in a gallery setting, pointing to new interpretations within this critique that bears witness to the confrontation between the institutional, the ideological, and memory.
In this first part of the project, focused on Peru and Venezuela, the Peruvian artist proposes the actual extraction from the wall, in dialogue with papers displaying search results about both countries, heightening the contrast between traditional propaganda and the biases and discourses of realities that inhabit the web.
Extracted murals depicting Keiko and Alberto Fujimori, Chávez, and political slogans populate the room with a strict sense of political intent, but also of a certain surveillance. In this archaeology of urban space, beyond the conversation between the formats of the political message, Martinat also promotes dichotomies in the interpretation of both message and space.
Sueño Bolivariano, Preludio I can be seen until November 29 at Formato Cómodo, Lope de Vega 5, Madrid (Spain).
