«Six Degrees of Separation» presents a selection of videos from Cal Cego (www.calcego.com), a private collection focused on the present and characterised by the significant presence of photography and video as means of artistic expression. «Six Degrees of Separation», the core idea behind this program of videos, is a theory based on the idea that any person in the world could be connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances with a maximum of five intermediate steps. This theory, initially proposed by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in 1929, in a short story called Chains,
depends on the idea that there is an exponential increase in the number of acquaintances according to the number of links in the chain, and only a small number of links are necessary for the total number of acquaintances to encompass all of the world’s population.
Program:
Six degrees of separation is the starting point for a program that doesn’t simply set out to find a link (which may just be anecdotal) between the artists and videos that are presented. Instead, it emphasises the set of links shared by the selected videos, which can go from the individual self to the social self, starting from the individual’s need for self-definition and self-knowledge and for relating to his or her surroundings, and goes on to offer the individual’s own vision of the world, often including elements that form part of the collective imaginary.
David Shrigley. Who I am and what I want, 2005. 7’23»
Story of the excesses that have led Pete, the main character, to leave the fiercely competitive world behind and find refuge in the forest, where he lives in exile with the animals.
Pipilotti Rist. I want to see how you see, 2003. 4’48»
Lyriical story of a witch’s coven played over images of a person where each body part symbolically represents an area of the world.
David Bestué / Marc Vives. Acciones en casa. 2005. 33′
Continuation of an earlier work, Acciones en Mataró. tTis time set inside a flat in Barcelona’s Eixample.
José Álvaro Perdices. 47 names. 2004. 12’37»
Exploration of the importance of the way individuality is formed through an intervention in which forty seven children from South Central Los Angeles are asked to shout out their names
Javier Codesal. La Biblia en 25 frases. 3’29»
La Biblia en 25 frases brings together 25 sentences from the Bible in a totally subjective and random way and uses them to structure a new narrative.
Christian Jankowski. Flock. 2002. 12’15»
A group of visitors to an exhibition are transformed into a flock of sheep. This closes the “magic circle” through which Jankowski explores the relationship between artists, institutions and viewers.
Martí Anson. Walt & Travis. Cinema version 2003. 22′
Filmed in the United States, this video remains totally faithful to the codes and form of road movies. There’s a difference, however, because in his film Anson emphasises and recreates all those moments and situations that never appear in road movies.
