Beatriz Olabarrieta at Parallel Oaxaca

Artist: Beatriz Olabarrieta

Exhibition title: Book! don´t tell me what to do

Venue: Parallel Oaxaca, Mexico City

Date: February 7 – March 18, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Parallel Oaxaca

‘Book! Don’t tell me what to do’ is also the title of a book.

Originated by the sculptural installation of Beatriz Olabarrieta at Parallel Oaxaca, the book is a compilation of ‘short stories’ written during the time of the exhibition by invitation and encounter with the artist. The publication of an Artist Book concludes the exhibition with a launch at Casa Bosques in Mexico City.

The stories in the exhibition have been made in collaboration with artists and writers such as Paul Becker, Martha Graham, Robert Walser, J.S.T Urruzola, Gabriela Acha, Trish Lyons and Adolfo AK, with whom the artist has created a narrative and fictional space triggered by the sculptural motives and scenarios in her installation. Assembling the artworks and their corresponding short story as a readable organism, the exhibition moves its shape to an Artist Book, which translates the physical experience of the artworks and exhibition into a multiple storyline caused by a new object- a Book in the making.

Beatriz Olabarrieta (Bilbao, Spain) graduated from the Wimbledon School of Art in 2004 and the Royal College of Art in 2007. She lives and works between London and Berlin. Recent projects include Dumb Bells, Serpentine Gallery London, All Over, Studio Leigh, London (2016) and The Boys and Girls Political, Lisson Gallery, London (2015), MOT International (2015) and Cell Project Space, London (2013 ). In 2016, Olabarrieta held the Plataform residence at Site Gallery in Sheffield and has recently been awarded the Joanna Drew Travel Fellowship for a research trip to Japan. She is a visitng tutor at Wimbledon School of Art, Royal Accademy of Arts, Newcastle University, England.

[…]

Short story for Book! don´t tell me what to do

by Paul Becker (2017)

Herself, saying nothing but meaning everything. Why not? What is it with her? With you? Sometimes you can almost hear her at it: a cat scratching at a carpet. She toys with the list of titles. This last is called:

‘NONE OF THE PEOPLE, NONE OF THE TIME’.

Her antagonists (among whose ranks you are only occasionally numbered) would call this sort of thing a gambit, of a piece with the rest, with what they see as her antisocial armoury; another trick for keeping the world at arm’s length. As though her self-mockery is a kind of broom handle. Here she kisses her hand to the air. Nobody has the right to assume to be truly knowing her, do they? Watery, her blue eyes present upon a perfect sky. She thinks. Actually, she doesn’t think; she is too thoughtful for that. No, her thinking thinks. These thoughts born of thoughts dance around you, and, (this, a forgivable flight of fancy), encircle you like petitioning children who are exposed, cold, confused and who would like to come indoors now please but no, no, no, you can NOT allow it you see, because she is always finding new thoughts that she cannot retain and heaven knows there is hardly any room. So, decidedly yes and at the same time, unambiguously no.

If I write now, I do it on air. Let the elements read it! It is undoubtedly an elusive exercise. In a sense, I am cogitating on that which will never exist: a summoner of fantasy: the handmaid to a mermaid.

So through that whole, long afternoon you pray for the coming of darkness, and how glad you are when the sun goes down over the big western hills and the twilight haze creeps off like a thief behind the mountains. Then the darkness comes, and then silence. The book falls from your hand. The pages scatter. For the black night you thank whichever available God. The dark of the moon, but it is only the stars that matter.

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Book! don´t tell me what to do (2017) Parallel Oaxaca /// Ciudad de Mexico. Installation view. Photo: Enrique Macías

Beatriz Olabarrieta, The shape of a pocket in collaboration with John Berger (2017), Laminated Board, lightbulb,A4 photocopies, post-it. 248 x 244 cm Photo: Enrique Macías

Beatriz Olabarrieta, The shape of a pocket in collaboration with John Berger (2017) Detail

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Book! don´t tell me what to do (2017) Installation view. Photo: Enrique Macías

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Veletas in collaboration with J.S.T Urruzola (2017). Photo: Lorena Ancona

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Book! don´t tell me what to do (2017) Parallel Oaxaca /// Ciudad de Mexico. Installation view. Photo: Lorena Ancona

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Inerte como el marmol in collaboration with Gabriela Acha (2017)

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Inerte como el marmol in collaboration with Gabriela Acha (2017), Photo: Lorena Ancona

Beatriz Olabarrieta, I was instructed by a book in collaboration with Robert Walser (2017). Photo: Enrique Macías

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Telepathy in five scenes in collaboration with Trish Lyons (2017) Laminated Board, CNC cut, lightbulb,Monitor and video, 248 x 122 cm, video 6:22 min

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Telepathy in five scenes in collaboration with Trish Lyons (2017) Detail. Photo: Lorena Ancona

Beatriz Olabarrieta, The visitor that wrote the press release in collaboration with Adolfo AK (2017) Photo: Lorena Ancona

Beatriz Olabarrieta, When writing is bendy in collaboration with Martha Graham (2017). Photo: Lorena Ancona

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Book! don´t tell me what to do (2017) Parallel Oaxaca /// Ciudad de Mexico. Installation view. Photo: Enrique Macías

Beatriz Olabarrieta, Dark clockwork or movement from before in collaboration with myself (2017) Laminated Board, A4 photocopies, ipad video 4:42 min. Photo: Enrique Macías