Growth and degrowth of Howard Roark Exhibition

Chiquita Room and The Green Parrot present a dual exhibition by poet and sound artist Eduard Escoffet, his first solo exhibition presented in the city. It is also the first time the two Barcelona-based galleries present a joint project. The exhibition is the result of two years of research into modern architecture and degrowth, in turn inspiring the process of experimenting with sound and everyday objects. The exhibition is divided into two parts: the first in Chiquita Room under the title Fable and the second at The Green Parrot under the title Events. Made up of diverse sound installations and a graphic piece the exhibitions as a whole address the myth of indefinite growth and the material limits of life on this planet.

The film The Fountainhead, released in 1949, was directed by King Vidor and stars Gary Cooper as Howard Roark, an ambitious architect who wants to make his mark on the world of architecture despite the reluctance of his surroundings. Based on the novel of the same title by Ayn Rand, the film uses modern architecture as an excuse for a libel against communism and, above all, a plea in favour of individualism and capitalist competitiveness. This is the starting point of this dual exhibition project, which aims to address the role of the individual in a fragile and interdependent world: if the capitalist euphoria of the 20th century pushed Ayn Rand to draw an isolated and victorious Roark in the face of the masses, the climatic pessimism of the 21st century forces us to dilute her genius in the commonplace and to question her epic narrative.

The exhibition is divided into two parts: Fable (Chiquita Room) and Events (The Green Parrot). The first explores the ideals that enable the exacerbated individualism of the 20th century, while the second looks at the details of what has brought us to this point. The project questions neoliberal individualism and the obsession with growth and, like the film and Rand’s book, it stems from architecture. The Fountainhead argues that architecture can only advance by virtue of the few who must fight against the conservative inertias of the masses, and in the exhibition, the column is the element that serves both to expose the obsession with growth and the need to think of architecture (and ecosystems) as complex ensembles in which isolated elements do not work: a column needs to support something.

As with text, Eduard Escoffet displaces and assembles everyday objects to make them speak: he proposes a new syntax without creating new writing or generating new objects. At a time when digitalisation threatens to wipe ou the object and materiality, the poet focuses on the physical nature of writing and everyday objects to deal with circularity, interdependence and human fragility. This same idea has inspired the production of the exhibition, which has basically been constructed with objects bought in neighbourhood shops and with local materials. The result is a dual exhibition in which sound, writing and objects create new architectures to rethink the role of the individual in the present moment.

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Activities

Opening at Chiquita Room: Wednesday, 18 January, 7 pm

Opening at The Green Parrot: Saturday, 21 January, 12 noon

Presentation of the album Bastida at The Green Parrot: Saturday, 28 January, 7 pm

Performance Extinction at Chiquita Room: Thursday, 2 February, 7 pm

Performance Timeline at The Green Parrot: Thursday, 16 February, 7 pm

Utopia i esclavatge [Utopia and Slavery] performance at the Reial Acadèmia de Medicina de Catalunya (Carme, 47, Barcelona): Saturday, 25 February, 8:30 pm, 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm

Deriva, closing performance: itinerary between the two galleries, Thursday, 9 March, 7 pm