Rubén Grilo

Who does a joke belong to? Rubén Grilo’s strikingly diverse work on view at NoguerasBlanchard’s new space in Madrid features a sound piece in which all we hear is two comedians quarrelling over the authorship of a joke. The work, which stems from a 2007 TV show, epitomizes some of the young Spaniard’s concerns in this show as it deals with the legacy of Conceptual art, its immateriality, and the paradox conveyed by how it was “shaped” to foster its commercial circulation. The exhibition, titled “Gloria Súbita” (Sudden Glory), is humorous and dense in equal measure.

Besides the controversial joke, there are three series of works in the exhibition. Within “Formas instantáneas” (Instant shapes), 2012, two found shimmering car hoods hang on the wall. Both show severe dents, surely suggesting a crash, but have been meticulously repainted in their original colors. The works possess a blunt presence that opposes Grilo’s alleged interest in immateriality, instead approaching the echoes of Conceptualism from a slant that was equally prominent in the 1960s: the author’s blatant detachment from the artwork. The crushed hoods evade linear narrative; notions of “before” and “after” merge as Grilo subverts the logical rhythms of the viewer’s perception and, consequently, of the creative process.

In similar fashion, two projectors that have been awkwardly embedded within the car hoods send images of scribbles to opposite walls. It is hard to decipher this work, a virtual image that has been digitally accelerated so as to make it totally illegible. Conceptually similar to the former work but using a radically different formal procedure, the series “Screen Alphabet,” 2011–12 is a powerfully visual sculptural work with crumpled film screens evoking ruined alphabetic letters. As is often the case, language and image set out in a conflict for supremacy. At the very least, the outcome of this match-up seems puzzling.