The collection of works presented by the PSJM collective (formed by Cyinthia Viera, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1973, and Pablo San José, Mieres, 1969) at the Llamazares Gallery is framed within their series “clean future”, in which an optimistic tone is adopted by depicting future scenarios where renewable energies become hegemonic. To achieve this, the collective follows its own aesthetic procedure, which they have termed “social geometry,” where statistical data serves as the foundation for minimalist compositions.
These “social geometries” function as “temporal landscapes,” landscapes that, in the face of imminent catastrophe, suggest that, as Blanca de la Torre wrote about this series, “understanding scientific data is not enough, and they remind us of the importance of art in visualizing a more habitable possible world.”
2050 is the year by which, if we want to survive as a species, we should have completed the decarbonization process by reducing CO2 emissions and other gases to zero. Future scenarios that align with the utopian thinking so dear to PSJM, which views utopia as a guide, a functional concept of ethical-political action. A utopia that must be pursued, not to achieve perfection in the social sphere, but to avoid falling into the darkest night. Thus, PSJM’s optimism, based on the forecasts and scenarios prescribed by science, appears here as an emotional element necessary to continue, to keep pursuing the horizon, to keep walking. Winding works, comforting chromatic curves that remind us of our commitment to life.
Following the collective’s sustainable approach, the works will be created using locally produced ecological paint. “2050: landscapes and scenarios” will consist of a mural intervention, nine paintings in various formats, four drawings, and two sculptures made of polychromed wood. In sum, it is a project that responds to the concept of “painting in the expanded field,” theorized by Rosalind Krauss. In a way, painting has always been at the core of PSJM’s conceptual works. In the “clean future” series, painting is related to words, to the space it occupies, and to the material made into a sign in a game of twists that results in images of great simplicity and profound meaningful density.
On one hand, the mural works return to the essence and origin of painting: the wall. This is how it all started, by staining a rock with a hand. On the other hand, there is a nod to genre painting, as these works update two traditional pictorial genres: the one most valued by the academy, historical painting (since these pieces show diachronic visions), and the one most valued in easel painting, the landscape. These are, therefore, “temporal landscapes” that function as social, ecological, political, and ethical denunciations through beauty.
