The last exhibition in which Marisol and I took part, was the Reflections event in Santander, organised by a Poets and Artists group and curated by our friends Marina and Rosario, which ran for three weeks upto the beginning of November. As is to be expected sometimes from the whims of the authorities and which the exhibiting artists have to take in their stride, there were several hurdles to be jumped over to get to exhibit anything at all. First there was a cancellation of the event in June of this year. Then when politely (and here we have to say we did have to bite our tongues) pressed to explain, the politicos had given our slot to a 'much more important' event. Many of our group went to see this 'important' exhibition of historic photographs of a news agency, badly displayed and boring to point of tears which hardly deserved to get our slot.
It was only after repeated pleas to understand the tremendous wrongdoing that had been meted out to us, that the Councillor for Culture at the Cantabrian government agreed to give us another exhibition slot in October. Even so we could not expect any help and god forbid even think of a catalogue or money for any expenses whatsoever or any drinks or food for our inauguration. Finally we were told that we could not even arrange for our own drinks for the invited guests.
Marisol's installation 'Arena Sin Continente'
Performance by the writer Mariano Gomez de Vallejo in front of my work, and my 'Chrosome 1' self portrait.
Not to be deterred, the exhibiting group of artists (and their partners) decided that the material that we had already organised for the inauguration could be enjoyed by themselves at a party to be held at some subsequent occasion at a convenient location. And this is exactly what happened a few days ago at the studio of Alfonso, an artist friend of ours, here in Laredo.
Images from the party.
A good time was had by all!
