Poetic drifts of a planning spirit

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Something happens, maybe it already happened or it hasn't yet. The spaces appear to have been recently vacated or are about to be reused. The objects are arranged temporarily, waiting for their definitive organization. Ambient sounds and incidental music rhythm fragmentary and repetitive actions that seem to want to pass the time inventing small controlled accidents. This is if we start from the idea that objects, actions and sounds are arranged in a space-time with a purpose, a utility, a meaning. If, on the contrary, we are inclined to rehearse a state of indefiniteness, a lack of purpose and function, if we get rid of the variables of linear and continuous time, images, objects and scenes become a key to get in touch with -and between–things, to inhabit spaces in a different way and, finally, to perceive what is subtracted from the cut-out produced by habits and gaze.

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Thus, between the photographic series, the videos and the sculptural object in the room, situations appear that seem to be part of an open narrative. From the off-screen of the videos you can hear the rain, the sounds of a wind instrument, the radio, the telephone, the water that falls from a faucet, doors that open and close, voices. At the same time, among stacked chairs, packing boxes, paneling and furniture arranged in a kind of film set, someone is listening to a record, challenging the balance or functionality of the glassware, disposing of some bread, chocolate and cherries. From outside the diegesis, a mysterious melody, with shades of psychological thriller, is repeated in a loop. In the photographs, the chaotic and dysfunctional accumulation and organization of rolls of rugs, empty desks, more stacked chairs, disassembled shelves, cladding and modular structures reappear in a space with the air of an office, doctor's office or study. Newly staged space for the photo session, the compositions respond to the same playful, experimental and enigmatic sense of the actions of the videos. Simultaneously, the central sculptural object dialogues –from its materials, structures, colours, scales and architectural references– with the previous series, incorporating the gallery space and the visitor into the tour.

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Finding ourselves with a new exhibition by Miguel Mitlag is the occasion to be affected by the estrangement of the everyday, the humor, the anarchic occurrences and the intriguing climates. It is also the opportunity to think, through his taste for those effects of staging and fictionalizing the ordinary, about the conventions, programs and designs that effectively govern our architectures, gestures, narratives and sensitive environments. What maneuvers today can interfere and transform what we call reality?

 

A small model of the gallery itself insists on our place in the game of scales, perspectives, simulations. We make arrangements wonders ––and extends the invitation– about the poetic drifts of that planning spirit. Something happens, maybe it already happened or it hasn't yet. Meanwhile, someone composes, invents, experiments, plays.