Jordi Colomer

 

Jordi Colomer worked as a set designer before he became an artist and was educated as an architect and art historian, experiences that continue to influence his work. Using props and treating landscapes and cityscapes as scenery, he creates “a kind of expanded theater” in which visitors are confronted with their own roles as both participants and spectators. One particularly disorienting experience designed by the artist was the 2006 video and sculpture No Future. A sculptural intervention in the form of a sign-toting car and an enigmatic public event, the work combines inchoate political theater with lyrics from the Sex Pistols’ 1977 anti-establishment anthem God Save the Queen. Shot more than a decade ago in Le Havre, France, Colomer’s No Future—the sign spells out the words “No? Future!”—illustrates, once again, how certain artworks can grow in stature, complexity, and importance as their messages are applied to new and changing contexts.

— CVF, USFCAM

 

Jordi Colomer, No Future, 2006. HD-CAM. With: Caroline Garçon. Production: Spot LeHavre /arts Le Havre, Maravills / Maravills (Barcelona-Paris). Acknowledgements: David Perreau, Galerie MichelRein (Paris). Courtesy of the artist. (Still image - video no longer available after exhibition dates)

 

“A black car drives along the road as night falls on an expressway. Mounted on its roof is a blinking neon sign like those that crown circus-tops or casinos. It spells out both a question and an answer: ‘No? Future!’ As dawn breaks, the car stops in the city center.

“The driver, dressed in a military jacket, gets out and walks along the main boulevard while banging a drum. Occasionally she stops drumming to ring doorbells. No reply. The city is still asleep. The young woman continues her march. Her drumbeat is accompanied by rhythmic shouts. She ends her march by returning to the car and standing on its hood. A few passersby watch her shout and bang the drum until she climbs behind the wheel again, perhaps to drive to another town.

“The motto ‘No Future’ was made famous by the Sex Pistols in 1977. It is radically changed here with the use of simple punctuation, transforming its anti-establishment message into absurdist advertising or, quite possibly, into a complete refusal of discourse. This video was shot in Le Havre—a city whose center was almost entirely rebuilt after the Second World War.”

— Jordi Colomer

 

Jordi Colomer, No Future, 2006. Courtesy of the artist.

 
 

“The confinement was too short. Very short. I hope the next lockdown lasts at least two years. And then we speak about it.”

— Jordi Colomer

 
 
Artist Jordi Colomer. Photo by Roland Jarry.

Artist Jordi Colomer. Photo by Roland Jarry.

About Jordi Colomer

(Barcelona, Spain, 1962)

Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.

Jordi Colomer has long juggled various media, including sculpture, video and installation. At the heart of his oeuvre is the investigation of space: physical and real space, and also the space of performance and representation, especially as these overlap, producing an experience the artist has defined as “expanded theatre.” Colomer additionally explores the utopian nature of town planning, while underscoring the dystopic decadence and alienation connected to the architecture of large cities. Colomer represented the Spanish Pavilion at the 57 Venice Biennale (2017) with the project Únete! Join Us!, an exploration of nomadism and collective agency. In 2018 he launched (with poet Eduard Escoffet and producer Carolina Olivares) La INFINITA, a self-managed cultural space located in the l'Hospitalet neighborhood of Barcelona that seeks to generate encounters between the visual and living arts. His works have been exhibited in international museums and biennials including: Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Jeu de Paume (Paris), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Belvedere 21(Vienna), Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York), Arte Alameda (México City), 7 Bienal del Mercosul (Porto Alegre, Brasil), MAAT (Lisboa), and Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (Berlin). Colomer’s work has been shown in two editions of Manifesta: Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Manifesta 12 (Palermo, Italy).

Artist website: jordicolomer.com

Artist Instagram: @jordi.colomer

La INFINITA website: lainfinitalh.org