Artist: Francesc Ruiz
Exhibition title: House of Fun
Venue: garcía | galería, Madrid, Spain
Date: February 25 – , 2020
Photography: Roberto Ruiz, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and garcía | galería, Madrid
Francesc Ruiz presents in garcía | galería his most recent large-scale installation coinciding with the retrospective that opens at the Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo (CA2M). Initially created for the Nordic Biennial Momentum in Norway in 2019, it now pops up in Madrid as a parasitization of the gallery space offering a radical exercise of freedom of expression.
Ruiz’s work uses comic as a starting point to investigate the possibilities of drawing as a mean for communication and expression of popular culture, unofficial policies and the dissemination of ideas through alternative channels. Although at the beginning his work focused its attention on the language and visual codes of the comic strip, its identification with the popular subcultures or the study of its own imagery, over time it has evolved towards a study of non-official ways of transmitting information. Interested in discovering the mechanisms of cultural distribution, his work has been physically developed to fully occupy the exhibition space in which the visitor is completely immersed. They are fictions that appear to be real, even in the smallest details, until the viewer discovers a content that stylizes, summarizes and enhances the society in which we live in a critical and analytical way
“HOUSE OF FUN” brings together these two aspects of Ruiz’s work: on the one hand it is presented as a false underground comic shop (one of those unofficial distribution mechanisms) and on the other its content reflects non-normative or non-majority sexual practices. In addition, from the entrance, the project is defined as a safe space against homophobia, sexism or racism. In fact, the fiction that represents the false store becomes an active space that encourages meetings to explore and share new ideas and test the limits of representation. The re-creation of fetishism and sexual imagery outside the norm also allows you to imagine new bodies and new societies. Francesc Ruiz (Barcelona, 1971) has exhibited his work at MNCARS (Madrid), IVAM (Valencia), MACBA (Barcelona), Gasworks (London), FRAC PACA (Marseille), Weserburg Museum (Bremen) and biennials such as Venice’s 201, Götteborg of 2017 or the Momentum biennial, Moss, Norway in 2019. He is one of the founders of the Institute of Porn Studies that critically analyzes the representation of sexuality and also functions as a laboratory for experimentation and study. Also, under the title of “Disturbing Distribution”, he has created a series of works that visualize the systems of circulation of goods and bodies in an attempt to point out the new disruptive spaces of capitalism.
HOUSE OF FUN
Francesc Ruiz
2019
Installation. Comic bookshop.
Elements:
– 1 Modular furniture in plywood of 75 x 588 x 62,5 cm.
– 1 Modular furniture in plywood of 75 x 336 x 62,5 cm.
– 45 cardboard boxes of 43 x 31 x 20 cm.
– 5000 plastic bags 18 x 25 cm, 18 x 25 cm.
– Posters: 45 color A1 prints; 100 A3 color prints; 150 b/w prints on A3 color paper.
– Publications: 5000 comics, 25 x 17 cm. The comics have 200 different covers and are printed on 10
different papers, creating 2000 different single variants. Only exist 2 or 3 copies of each model. The
content of the publication is always the same, a 40 pages comic printed on newsprint, with a narrative
about the bookshop itself.
