English
Located in the North Pacific between coordinates 135 ° to 155 ° W and 35 ° to 42 ° N, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the most atrocious and horrifying visions that we can imagine. Despite being apparently out of a post-modern narrative constructed through contemporary variations around the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym or another story by Poe, what really shakes is the condition of reality of the phenomenon, which is not only the result of creative imagination of a human mind but also of the essential foundation of our consumption society, waste production without fee.
This is an area the size of Europe, consisting exclusively of garbage. Visually, it is less like the image of a giant floating island shared by most of the descriptions of the phenomenon rather than a countless number of plastic particles decayed or in decaying phase that generate a kind of dreadful oily stain whose growth appears to be endless. Unfortunately and tragically it does not seem to be the only one, as the existence of another one of similar features and dimensions has been found.
In this veritable ecological disaster that leaves us yet again in evidence as a species, we can find the origin of vortices, Daniel Canogar’s exposure (one of the greatest Spanish artists of international renown) in the Madrid Canal Foundation www.fundacioncanal.com, consisting of six powerful and touching installations which have in common water and its ability to make the viewer reflect on the critical point where the throwaway culture leads us. Concern that is closely connected with another issue of particular interest to Canogar: the fast obsolescence not only of consumer goods but also of the technology we use daily, and the speed with which it is constantly renewed, turning the supports used previously into trash.
Simultaneously and until May 15, Daniel Canogar exhibits his giant installation Travesias (cruises) in the exhibition hall of the magnificent and iconic Neo-Mudéjar water tank of a circular profile Canal Isabel II in Madrid (Calle Santa Engracia, 125). Although it was originally presented in Brussels for the European Union Council in 2010, the Madrid assembly is completely new as pieces have been adapted to the architecture of the tank. This is a huge LED screen sculpture of 30 meters long and 1.65 wide that falls vertically at the large central hole of the hall forming an undulating and winding path that contains a loop at the top and may remind some way to a huge slide. On it we see projected different images of people say that trying to advance, although they sometimes crumble and fall.
Paul Oilzum
It is an installation that emphasizes the sculptural element of the image, in line with the boredom Canogar has declared to feel with projections on a simple rectangle. And a work of great strength and beautiful drama that you’d better not miss when you rent apartments in Madrid
