Citissimum Altissimum Fortissimum, an exhibition about competitive sports at Santa Mònica

One of the most elemental characteristics of the world we live in is that both nations and companies, individuals, objects we consume, our actions and relationships, our bodies and our images are part of a colorful competition. This competition pits us against each other, but also, and above all, confronts us with a goal, with a mark that is never fully satisfied, that always requires a little more in the demand for self-improvement.

Although the longing for improvement and progress has been a constant driving force of Western modernity, in the 21st century it has become an unstoppable new trend that has accustomed us to measure and numerically compare ourselves with a ubiquitous and unattainable ideal of improvement that, so imposed from the outside, we end up imposing on ourselves from within. In the eyes of others and our own, we want to appear stronger, younger, healthier, more productive and efficient, and each of these attributes carries an associated number, a data that defines us, determines us, and ignites the desire to surpass it. Measurement has become a dogma.

In this context, it is no coincidence that competitive and mass sports have become one of the most followed and applauded social phenomena. Sports permeates our entire reality, it is the perfect metaphor for how we have come to understand the world, it is the cause and the consequence. Sports waves a flag that gradually loses national colors to embrace those of the business world; sports invigorates and monetizes, sports rewards and punishes. However, above all, sports expresses all these ideals through a set of effective measures. Effective because they can be objectively quantified and compared in a logic of classification: scores, cameras, pulse meters, thermal and biometric sensors, monitoring devices, pharmacology and anti-doping controls are orchestrated in a perfect composition of the culture of competitiveness turned into spectacle.

CITISSIMUM ALTISSIMUM FORTISSIMUM is an exhibition about a current phenomenon that, although radically crossing us, is underrepresented in the world of art: sports as a symptom of the contemporary world. Through the exploration of concepts such as the body, measurement and performance, competitiveness, binarism and representation, the exhibition engages in dialogue various artistic pieces that, through absurdity, irony and deconstruction, push the manifestations of competitive and mass sports to their ultimate consequences to make us reflect on how, in some way, we are all immersed in the same logic: we all compete through tendentially objectifiable measures, and we all contribute to turning it into a spectacle.

Artists:

Cabosanroque, Curro Claret, Ca l'Enredus - Actuavallès, François Delaunay and Julià Carboneras, FRAU recerques visuals, Irena Visa and Pau Masaló, Joachim Schmid, Joan Fontcuberta and Arnau Rovira, La Juan Gallery, Mateo Maté, Miet Warlop, Passió/Aquassiòn, Paula Artés, Realmente Bravo

It can be visited for free from Tuesday to Sunday and holidays: 11:00 - 20:30 h.