Under the title ‘Demolitions and Excavations’ Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson show at Martin van Zomeren/GMVZ photographs that were made in 2002 for the project Un elemento más in Málaga (Southern-Spain). The series tells about the life in an old working-class area that strongly changes due to land speculation. The photos show an emphatically chaotic situation in the by tourists so much loved city. The area finds itself clearly in a transitional period in which old buildings are demolished, rubbish keeps lying around, parking lots arise, immigrants from nearby North Africa temporarily occupy pieces of wasteland and inhabitants try to hold on to a way of daily life. The title, which was inspired by a sign of a contractor with the indication ‘Demoliciones y Excavaciones’, can be taken literally: demolitions and excavations. Of existing and underlying structures. The human mechanism of survival clearly has disconcerting aspects. Demolitions and excavations shows a different and hidden Europa. As always Libia and Ólafur show in their poetical observation a mixture of criticism and humour, but above all a love for life. Goya and Pasolini are always nearby.
Work of Libia & Ólafur can also be seen until June 5 in the exhibition Nederland 1, Museum GoudA, Gouda.
From May 7 onwards their work can be seen in Homesick I, the first of a series of exhibitions in a collaboration between CIA.IS – the Center for Icelandic Art / Akureyri Art Museum (IJsland), Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center Istanbul (Turkey), The Center for Contemporary Art (Israel) and the Centre PasquArt, Biehl, Switzerland.
Libia & Ólafur were nominated in 2006 for the Icelandic DV-culture prize.
More on www.edprojects.be, www.libia-olafur.com; www.cia.is and www.museumgouda.nl.
With kind support of Foundation AKKA, DeisKa and ed.projects.
