MAISTERRAVALBUENA is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition at the gallery by Karmelo Bermejo, titled . (a full stop).
For the work titled “ *“ the funds granted by the Spanish bank Santander to make an art work were used to speculate with Bankia shares. The capital gains were assigned to the purchase of all the seats of a scheduled flight departing from Europe and bound to Africa, so that it flew empty. During the summer 2012, in the middle of the euro zone crisis, the Spanish state took control of the Spanish banking conglomerate Bankia, whose shares made its shareholders lose 90% of the money they had invested. In this context, the shares’ value varied strongly, raising up to 30% and then going down deeply during the very same day. This volatile scenario caused by the Hedge Funds of the City of London operating the shares, kept on for several days. It was then when the total amount of the funds granted by the Santander bank –through the Botín Foundation– was used to trade the shares, buying Bankia securities with a raising trend within the day and closing with benefits over its value the next day. The capital gains were assigned to purchase the seats of a scheduled flight in high season that took off in the night of the 24th August, at 11.30 pm, from Barcelona to Tunis, so that it flew its way empty.
The gallery displays the 126 boarding passes, framed according to the position of each seat inside the plane. The receipts of the Stock Market operations are also displayed, along with a video that gives evidence of the flight. The video is an edition of 5 identical originals displayed entirely in the room.
The title of the work “Blank” refers to its shape of an unused canvas. “Blank” is a handcrafted white monochrome, to which hundreds of white paint layers where applied for more than six months to result in the shape of a ready-made canvas. Its monochromatic characteristics in each one of its layers makes it a genuine monochrome, unlike those obtained in the traditional way, unifying the color in the surface of the canvas. Its authenticity as a monochrome implies is falseness as a canvas; its cloth, stretcher and staples are made of solid white paint. “Blank” is a trompe-l’œil of a ready-made. “Blank” is also a trompe-l’œil of the absence of paint, simulated with paint.
Both canvases shown at the exhibition read the text “Undeclared Income”, applied with different techniques. Each work challenges its buyer not to declare the acquisition of the piece and the gallery not to declare its sale. While “Fiscal Oil” (oil on canvas) is a painting, the work “Fiscal Canvas” (linen woven on linen) is conceived as an art work that supports other art works. If another art work takes that support, it must be fiscally treated the same way.
