Artificial. Figuracions contemporànies. A cura de José Lebrero Stals. MACBA, 1998

ANYS 90. DISTÀNCIA CERO / 1990s. ZERO DISTANCE 22 JUN – 31 AUG/ 1994 Centre d’Art Santa Mònica Artists: Ignasi Aballí, Pep Agut, Ana Laura Álaez, Chema Alvargonzález, Bernedicta Bergado, Núria Canal, Daniel Canogar, Jordi Colomer, Octavi Comerón, Compañía Magnética, Luis Contreras, Salomé Cuesta, Ricardo Echevarría, Galeria Virtual, José Gallego, Dora García, Chema Gil, Susy Gómez, Carles Guerra, Itziar Jarabo, Laboratorio de Luz, Pau Lagunas, Kepa Landa, José Maldonado, Begoña Montalbán, Javier Montero, Pedro Mora, Begoña Muñoz, Ana Navarrete, Mar Núñez, Itziar Okariz, Lucía Onzain, Mabel Palacín-Marc Viaplana, Jesús Palomino, Asier Pérez González, Txuspo poyo, Susana Rabanal, Jorge Ribalta, Juan Carlos Robles, Xavier Rovira-Ramon Parramon, Aureli Ruiz, La Societé Anonyme, Montserrat Soto, Juan Urrios, Eulàlia Valldosera. Curator: José Luis Brea INTER/ZONA. ARTS VISUALS I CREACIÓ CONTEMPORÀNIA A BARCELONA / INTER/ZONE. VISUAL ARTS AND CONTEMPORARY CREATION IN BARCELONA 14 APR – 18 JUN/ 2000 PALAU DE LA VIRREINA Artists: Oscar Abril Ascaso, Juan Pablo Ballester, Neus Buira, Nuria Canal, Raimond Chaves, Carles Congost, Richardo Echevarría, Innothna, Gustavo Marrone, Connie Mendoza, Metàpolis, Julia Montilla, Joan Morey, Ester Partegàs, Javier Peñafiel, Marco Roso, Daniel Steegmann Curator: Manel Clot VOSTÉSTÀQUÍ /YOU ÊTES HEREÍ 21 JUN – 2 SEP/ 2001 PALAU DE LA VIRREINA BARCELONA ART REPORT Artists: Antoni Abad, Iñaki Álvarez, Margarita Andreu, Maria Angerman, Akané, Juan Pablo Ballester, Eugenia Balcells, Ugo Beconcini, Joana Cera, Olivier Cálix, Jordi Colomer, Josep Maria Cabané, Pep Duran, Oriol Font I Javier Peñafiel, Alicia Framis, Sergio García, Carles Guerra, Juande Jarillo I Julia Montilla, Jorge Llorella, Andrey Marlhens, Josep Maria Martín, Jo Milne, Begoña Movellán, Joan Morey, Perejaume, Jaune Pitarch, Enrique Radigales, Francesc Ruiz, Tanja Smitz, Montserrat Soto, Claudia Tersttapen, Rubén Verdú, Borja Zabala I Alberto Peral. Curators: Rosa Ferré / Chus Martínez

It was compared to a fairground on account of the sensation of chaos and described as a revivalfor its sense of déjà vu: Anys 90. Distància Zero, curated by José Luis Brea at the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica in 1994, brought together 45 artists in a collective exhibition that dealt first and foremost with the situation of context and working in a local context. Five years later, with El punt cec. Art espanyol dels 90/The Blind Spot. Spanish Art of the ‘90s, Brea tested out a different approach with the project Zeitschnitt at the Kunstraum Innsbruck in Austria. Curators from five European countries were asked to conceive exhibitions of artistic positions from their respective cultural backgrounds. Brea brought along works by eleven of the artists he had worked with on Anys 90. Distància Zero, in a bid to reaffirm the salient position of artists from this country in the contemporary international art scene. Whatever their merits or demerits, these two shows are, at the very least, referents for subsequent exhibitions that have worked with the immediate context.

Close to this line, a year later, in 2000, Manel Clot mounted inter/zona in the Palau de la Virreina with the aim of drawing attention to the plural panorama of contemporary visual arts to be found in Barcelona. Rather than an exhibition, the show defined itself as a project, and defined the context as more an idea than a city. This, then, was one of the supreme examples of an exhibition ‘of tone’. In other words, in this type of show the emphasis and the interest consist in exploring not a theme but a tone, an aptitude or something like collective a ‘energy’. Given the incorporation of the Metàpolis architects, the graphic image created by the Vasava Artworks studio, the sound interventions by Vacca, the extension of the project to areas beyond the strictly exhibitive such as free magazines (e.g. intra/zona, a series of specific projects by the seventeen artists in the magazine B-guided) and BTV, as well as interventions in the Sónar music festival and QUAM (hiper/zona), the whole project was clearly conceived as a forum for reflection and debate on the theoretical premises and formal achievements of the exhibition project.

In contrast, the exhibition put on the following year as part of the programme of the triennial Barcelona Art Report, also in the Palau de la Virreina, was, despite its shared intention of engaging with the art being created in the city, a totally different affair. Vostéstàquí, curated by Rosa Ferré and Chus Martínez, similarly opted for the absence of a theme and proposed a collective exhibition that extended to a documentary website, a forum of critical debate, a net art space and a catalogue, all as active parts of the project. The result was a fair reflection of what the triennial as a whole amounted to: an exhibition that was variable in its proposals, fragile in its creation of local context and limited in its expectations.

The latest venture into this kind of exhibition in Barcelona has been undertaken by the Centre Cívic Sant Andreu, which in the last few years has emerged as one of the centres most actively concerned with capturing the artistic actuality of the city. The show’s title is a declaration of intentions in its own right: Temperatura ambient was curated earlier this year by gallery-owners Álex Nogueras and Rebeca Blanchard.