This Is Not A Love Song

Andy Warhol, Vito Acconci, Art & Language, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Saâdane Afif, Cabello/Carceller, Dan Graham, Yoko Ono, Adel Abidin, Nam June Paik, Barbara Kruger, Guerrilla Girls, Bruce Nauman, Richard Avedon, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth, Sol Lewitt, Ronald Nameth, Marc Bijl, Rodney Graham, Gisèle Vienne, Patric Chiha, Tony Oursler, Christian Marclay, Mike Kelley, Douglas Gordon, Jeremy Deller, Mark Leckey, Richard Hamilton, Robert Rauschenberg, Pussy Riot, Cindy Sherman, Judith Barry, Richard Kern, Javier Fresneda, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Filip Custic, Eric Siegel, Tony Cokes, José Iges, Largen & Bread, Raymond Pettibon, Jean Claude Cubino, Luís San Sebastián, John Di Stefano o Montse Galán.

The exhibition sets out to trace the genealogy of the relations between pop music and video-creation from the 1960s to today, with the emphasis on those moments in which there was feedback between the two manifestations as they explored the field of experiment, utopia and political incorrectness.

It’s important to remember that although this is a subject academic histories of art tend to skip over, relations between the visual arts and popular music in the course of the 20th century were very fertile. Various generations of avant-garde artists have now integrated into the production of their works elements that are directly or indirectly related with the attitudes and imaginaries developed by genres such as rock and roll, pop, psychedelia, glam, punk, soul, disco music, hip-hop, indie pop, electronic music or any of the more short-lived sub-genres and music trends developed over the last 50 years.

From pop art to conceptual art, from performance art and body art to video-art and experimental film, from the situationist movement to the activist practices of the new millennium, taking in more recent trends like young British art, relational aesthetics and post-production theories… Artists of the calibre of Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Vito Acconci, Dan Graham, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari, Rodney Graham, Tony Oursler, Christian Marclay, Mike Kelley, Douglas Gordon o Jeremy Deller and many more, down to today, have approached this genre in some of their most outstanding works, sometimes even collaborating with different rock bands or recording their own albums. Similarly, leading musicians such as John Lennon, David Bowie, Pete Townshend, Syd Barret, Brian Eno, Alan Vega, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and members of essential bands of the last two decades, like Sonic Youth, REM, Blur, Franz Ferdinand and The Kills, all trained at art school before becoming professional musicians.

From this approach and bearing in mind that the origins of video-art run almost parallel to those of pop music, the exhibition it is arranged by subject matter in seven chapters:

• Art in pop / Pop in art (Warhol, Richard Hamilton, Nam June Paik, Eric Siegel,Robert Rauschenberg, etc)
• Hysteria and religion (Dan Graham)
• ‘Non-musicians’ vs ‘non-artists’. Rock and conceptual art ( Vito Acconci, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman, Baldessari, Tony Cokes, José Iges, Cabello/ Carceler, Tony Oursler…)
• Rock and activism (Marc Bijl, Raimond Pettibon, Mike Kelley, Sonic Youth Riot Girls, Barbara Kruger, Judith Barry, Guerrilla Girls, Pussy Riots)
• Rock and its double (Christian Marclay, Largen & Bread, Fluxus, Jean Claude, Saadane Afif, Douglas Gordon, Adel Abidin, Luis San Sebastián)
• Policies of dance music and news urban rhythms (Jeremy Deller, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Marck Leckey, Cabello / Carceler, John DiStefano, Filip Cusic)