Today could be your day at Espai Tactel Toormix

Artists: Guillermo Ros, Amalia Ulman, Real Madrid, Paul Barsch & Tillman Hornig, Jaume Clotet

Exhibition title: Today could be your day

Curated by: Ali A. Maderuelo and Julia Castelló

Venue: Espai Tactel Toormix, Barcelona, Spain

Date: February 26 – May 14, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Espai Tactel Toormix, Barcelona

Today could be your day
What’s your day going to be like?
Smile, it could be your last day
Look for the positive side of every day
Chose what your day will be like
Give each day the chance to be the best one in your life
Today may be a great day
Any day can be your day
Every day is the chance to change your life
Give each day the chance to be the best one in your life
Today’s going to be a great day
Begin every day with optimism!
What’s your day going to be like?
It’s going to be a great day
It’s your day, make a wish
Everyday demands happiness
Don’t let anyone ruin your day
Every day may be the start of something wonderful
The best moment is today
If your day is bitter, shake it up a bit
Take the next step: today may be your day

The exhibition takes its title from the motivational phrases that populate today’s society and takes a turn from the post-irony to show the problems of this “condemnation of happiness society.” For this, the curators have selected a group of artists whose work has a personal exhibition component. With these works, they raise the gaps that exist in the system (collapse, imaginary identities, parties, exposure in networks …) to help us create alliances and empathize with other selves in the era of globality and ego and to continue living in a different way in a system dominated by imposition, repetition of models and the continuous need to appear.

A note about the exhibition “Hoy puede ser tu día” (“Today could be your day):

An attitude, a way of approaching practice, a leftover of nineties irony made into a museum piece. “Today could be your day” appropriates motivational discourse, which over the last decade we have seen printed all over consumer products, to bring together a group of artists characterized by meta-modern self-exploration of their own condition. The eternal struggle of Guillermo, the narratives of Amalia, the figures of Jaume, the boredom Paul and Tilman, the allegory of Real Madrid: all appear as reminders of the fine line between artist and work, between irony and sincerity, of the universal capacity to make a start on our other selves separated by thousands of miles of distance.

Death to style. Long live attitude

Ali A. Maderuelo y Julia Castelló. Independent curators

Today could be your day, 2021, exhibition view, Espai Tactel Toormix, Barcelona

Guillermo Ros, SPRINT, 2020, Drawing with India ink and lacquer on wood, 190 x 77 x 1,5 cm, Transfer on Portuguese pink marble, 40 x 56 x 2 cm

Real Madrid, Bounty of the Mutineers, 2020, Carboard box, 1.39 “ and circular screens, Variable dimensions

Paul Barsch & Tilman Hornig, Xenothinkers, 2018, Cardboard, paint and xerox prints, 140 x 110 cm unit

Today could be your day, 2021, exhibition view, Espai Tactel Toormix, Barcelona

Amalia Ulman, New World 1717, 2017, Video 6’36”, Live performance of the artist with the dancer Valentina Zhang at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai as part of the festival RAM HIGHLIGHT 2017: DISPLACE

Jaume Clotet, @its.happening, 2021, Live performance on Instagram Live on February 26, 2021. Performance record

Today could be your day at Espai Tactel Toormix, 2021, poster