Cream cheese and pretty ribbons!

An exhibition with works by: David Bestué (Barcelona, 1980. Lives there), Sean Lynch (County Kerry, 1978. Lives in Brussels), Eulàlia Rovira & Adrian Schindler (Barcelona, 1985. Périgueux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, 1989; Live in Barcelona), and Batia Suter (Bülach, Zürich, 1967. Lives in Amsterdam and Eglisau, Zürich).

“Two strains of intellectual vulgarity: defenselessness against content and defenselessness against form. The one experiences only the material side of art. It is of German origin. The other experiences even the rawest of materials artistically. It is of Romance origin. To the one, art is an instrument; to the other, life is an ornament. In which hell would the artist prefer to fry?” — Karl Kraus, Viennese satirist (1874–1936), in “Heine und die Folgen” [Heine and the Consequences], 1910.

‘Cream cheese and pretty ribbons!’ is an exhibition that ventures into the apparently perilous middle ground between too much content and too much form, between too many nouns and too many adjectives, between too much everyday and too much artiness. Are objects or statements that are laden with information – or those that are concerned with utility above all else – at risk of appearing aloof and extorting their own importance? Undoubtedly. Just as art in an abundantly ‘poetic’ mode might be deemed just too delightful and refined.

Drawing on strategies such as disposition, wit, redundancy, or storytelling, the artists and artworks of this exhibition conspire with seemingly mundane things and images to somehow find and invent ways to rebuff, circumvent, surpass, or mitigate this spurious alternative between indulgent contents and bad Romance.