Sobredosis2016 Exhibition. I have participated with the collage “Stendhal” in this collective exhibition held during February 23rd-24th, and from February 29th to March 6th in the Espacio Despliegue at 10 Sombrerería Street (Lavapies, Madrid).

The work is a digital photomontage of 15.75 x 15.75 inches, printed on Dibond. Inspiration comes from Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name, Stendhal, who was a French writer of the nineteenth century, and also for the syndrome for which he is universally known, the Stendhal syndrome. In his book of 1826 Rome, Naples et Florence, he wrote:

« J’étais arrivé à ce point d’émotion où se rencontrent les sensations célestes données par les Beaux Arts et les sentiments passionnés. En sortant de Santa Croce, j’avais un battement de cœur, la vie était épuisée chez moi, je marchais avec la crainte de tomber. »

 

“I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations… Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call ‘nerves.’ Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.”

Nowadays, there is no need to travel to delight ourselves with art. Its abundance in all media and social networks invades us in such a way that those palpitations and fears of which Stendhal referred to, they have transformed into fear of not being able to distinguish between what is beautiful in art and what is not. Excess load of daily images that come to us as passive spectators, have somehow, deactivated our connection points with “beauty”. Art without time and calm to enjoy it turns itself against us and distress us.

Art is exhausting itself before our eyes. And there is little that we can do about it. Art has not died, but its pleasure has. At least we have the consolation of the happiness that provides the creative process for the artist. That will not die.

Sobredosis2016 (Overdose2016) is an exhibition that sets out a visual metaphor about the artistic overdose in which we live, not only artists, managers, critics, curators, gallery owners… but the general public lover of art during the month of February. ARCO, Art Madrid, JustMad, Flecha, Casa Leibniz, Room Art Fair, DeArte, We Are Fair, Drawing Room and other parallel events, become attractive and interesting events but, given its concentration in the short space of four days, visitors can end up suffering a large overdose of art.

The Sobredosis exhibition project (Overdose) was born in 2015 from the hand of the artist and cultural manager Adriana Bergés, which brought together the work of several artists to reflect on the information overdose to which citizens are exposed daily. Given the good reception, this year 2016, the exhibition has evolved and incorporates the collaboration of Raquel Moraleja (blogger at Lit Ar Co), 3K Art and Intercambiador Acart. It maintains the idea of ​​overabundance and the effects of its reception in the public, but is summarized in the art world during a certain date: the week of art in Madrid in February. Thus, it maintains its original character but also incorporates a new element: reflection. To organize an exhibition during the art week to critically rethink the art week is an exercise in meta-reference.

The artists gathered here, elected by open call, they have created works deeply critical and original: Jesús García Plata, Ausín Sáinz, Laura Tabarés, Le Frère, Juan Carlos Rosa Casasola, Jul Vellkömmen, Dora Ramón, Lidia García. Sata, Montaña Pulido, José Cavana, Raúl García Collado, Oleksandr McQuartz, Guilherme Bergamini, Ana Martínez, Sánchez del Castillo, Francisco Mateos Rego, Darío Estrada, Maricruz Reina, Julio C. Vázquez Ortiz, Lydia Garvín, Josep Santamaría, Dilyana Glogova, Felix Coll, Iker Lemos, Elia Núñez Barez, Guillermo Barbero, Cristina Santos, Carlos Nadal and Endika Basaguren.

After a whole weekend watching contemporary art fairs, classic or more innovative, with galleries and artists repeated in many of them, visitors, both professional and amateurs, ended up wandering the halls with their heads down. Their brains cannot process any moreaesthetic stimulus. So, what is the purpose of the concentration of fairs in just four or five days? To overfeed us? To bore us? Almost all the artists at the Sobredosis exhibition, protagonists themselves of the art market, have turned to the wit of the satire to reflect and create.

Herewith you can find some links to media who have spoken about the Sobredosis2016 exhibition: Art Boulevard, Frontera 0, Proyecto Duas, Pongamos que hablo de Madrid, Lit Ar Co, LaPostFeria… And the pictures that took the boys from Frontera 0 the day opening.