OFLUXO

PIG: Hello? (G)

DOG: Hi! (G)

PIG: Where am I?

DOG: (Mmm) I wouldn’t really know what to tell you… (G)

PIG: Hey, it’s you! (G) But what are we doing here?

DOG: No idea, but it’s very strange…

PIG: Where’s the rest of them?

DOG: (G) I don’t know…

PIG: What about this body?! Was it mine? No, no… this was in that workshop (G), yes, there, next to the cemetery in Alboraya, wasn’t it?

DOG: Well, I don’t know

PIG: Oh, I’m scared!

DOG: And so am I! Do you think maybe it’s our new place, that we’ve been downgraded here and ave?

PIG: Buffff, I hope not… so much flipping back and forth… I’m a bit fed up. (G) As good as we were in that little terrace… Ouch! Here, not alone or anything, how sad! (G)

DOG: I’d like to go back to that banquet… I miss being at that table (sigh).

PIG: What banquet/table are you talking about? The one at the Poble Nou workshop, the one at the old pig farm in Alboraya or the one at the old boat workshop? (G) This doesn’t look good

DOG: Wait, wait! What do you mean? (G) That they’ve abandoned us once again? (G for crying)

PIG: This looks… but this time it’s even worse

DOG: What do you mean, worse?

PIG: Take a good look… (G) What are we doing here alone? In this kind of… white cube with no natural light, like a laboratory?

DOG: I know where you’re going… but wait, (G) it’s not a laboratory, it’s not exactly a sterile space, look at the floor…, and the lighting… it looks more like a ship, doesn’t it?

PIG: But what a bean you were! Don’t you see? It doesn’t matter, there’s no need for a laboratory because they treat us as single-use objects to experiment for a while. (G)

Don’t you have the feeling that we are just entertainment for people?

Look at that over there…

DOG: Is that you, parlour leaves?

PIG: Yes

DOG: Not again, please! (G for crying)

PIG: We could read it, it might give us more clues (G)

DOG: Hey, look, look, look! There’s people watching us!

Hey! Schssssss-schssssss! We’re made of wood!

She’s from urban logging, but I’m made of wood from Warsaw! (G)

PIG: What’s she looking at, assholes? (G) You see, making themselves interesting… as always (G dignified). After all, the vast majority of these bumblebees come here to watch the show to say they’ve seen it, they’ve been here and feel more cultured, (G) but they have no interest in why and how we got here.

DOG: Hey, don’t go overboard, there are people who are interested!

PIG: (G dignified) Interest! If I had my missing paw, you’d see how they’d stop being stupid (G).

DOG: Well, tell Ximo to do it for you!

Because with three, you don’t need air! (R)

PIG: Look who’s talking, which has neither three, nor two, nor one, nor a half, nor none!

DOG: (Singing) The priest no longer sings (R)!

PIG: Arggg, but what a chard you were! Don’t provoke me, don’t provoke me! If I try, I’m not going to use these paws to run away from here, but to smash your head in (G).

DOG: Oh, I love you too, I love your half rotten face and your smelly temper! (G)

PIG: Shut up, you mangy dog!

Oh! Look, we didn’t want to do the show and we’re doing it. (G)

And here we are, like in a shop window and we don’t know for how long!

DOG: (G) Well, I’m into it! (R) I like people looking at me and taking pictures of me; what I don’t like is not being able to scratch myself, wow!

PIG: Shut up, you mangy dog, it’s horrible, and that’s all there is to it! (G)

DOG: Whatever you say, queen die! Oh, how it turns me on! (G)

Come on, don’t get angry, at least you and I keep each other company, we’re not alone.

PIG: Mm! What a remedy! Look, I can’t stand such a lack of dignity, I’m going to sleep for a while to see if I can forget everything and, if I’m lucky, wake up when he hits me alone.

DOG: Good idea, I think I’ll do the same.

See you here for a little while!

THE TWO: (yawning and snoring)

DOG: One little thing, can I sniff your bum? (G)

PIG: Go to sleep, you mangy dog!

END




Voices:

https://soundcloud.com/guillermo-ros-262755006/amfitrions-i-hostes-mari-giner-voice-at-zape?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

“Pigs are capable of remembering and memorising certain commands, and they can learn through positive reinforcement just like dogs. In addition to all this, you should know that pigs do not smell bad, they can learn to walk on a leash and they are affectionate beings”.

This is one of the millions of references that we can find in any web search engine when we type: “pet pig”. Many, many of these can be found in the thousands of forums about what kind of pig to buy and how to buy it. They don’t want it to grow, they want the desired mini pig, obviously. But once bought, it often becomes a heavy and uncomfortable pig, and when this idyllic plan of domestication fails, it ends up being abandoned. Yes, just like the dog that is no longer the cute puppy that was given with a big bow around its neck at Christmas.

I can’t tame it as I would like to, it bothers me, it is uncomfortable, I reject it and I abandon it. Both the sow and the dog in this exhibition are an allegory of abandonment after a failed domestication, of animals but also of other characters, objects and questions that go much further.

The project “Amfitrions i hostes” starts from a reflection on the way in which art and culture today adhere to neoliberal logic, and certain state policies, through practices that monopolise and finance artistic and cultural life. Art, culture, codes, language… everything has been domesticated and at the same time it has become a tool of domestication to later begin a process of abandonment.

The project materialises with a sound installation in which Mari Giner gives voice to and characterises a pig and a dog that Ximo Ortega once produced. Sculptures cut out of wood that, after having been exhibited, were stored for years in the open air and today return to the exhibition space where they maintain a self-reflexive dialogue. However, this is a project that illustrates the perversion of this concept of domestication, abandonment and power relations within the cultural sphere. From the abandonment of the domesticated animal/artist who at a given moment loses all his value, to the abandonment of his own works, his codes, his language, or even his own person.