VITORIA-GASTEIZ.- Artium, Basque Contemporary Art Centre-Museum presents PIGS, an exhibition that “aims to reflect a political landscape permeated by cynicism that stems from the paternalistic discourse—loaded with clichés and a sense of superiority—of northern European countries regarding the countries in the south". PIGS, acronym of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, is a derogatory term dreamt up in AngloSaxon financial circles, alluding to a questionable “economic miracle” but with other, additional social and cultural tones. The curator, Blanca de la Torre has brought together twenty artists from the four countries to speak “ironically and subversively of the socio-political implications of the crisis and its cultural roots, of an account within Europe that is full of paradoxes, of a fractured pan-European idea”. PIGS is an international production by Artium, Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki (Greece), Municipal Gallery of Oporto (Portugal) and Es Baluard (Mallorca).
PIGS (occasionally PIIGS, if Ireland is included) is an acronym made popular by the Financial Times in an article published in 2008, although it had already been used formerly by other newspapers such as The Economist, The Times and Le Monde. It is a derogatory term, linked to the English expression “flying pigs” that refers to something impossible or unreal, in this case the economic miracle of these states in the Euro zone.
However, the term has gained other connotations relating to the cultural and social clichés that exist regarding differences between northern and southern European countries. In this sense, Blanca de la Torre wonders: “Might it not be possible to suggest that within Europe, neo-colonial discursive strategies are being used in a north-south direction to enlarge the divide in the cultural imaginary? Is it possible that the supposed inability to attain the goals set by German austerity is being employed as a pretext to justify a type of segregation based essentially on cultural stereotypes?”
With a selection of twenty artists from the four countries mentioned above, the exhibition attempts to depict “a political landscape permeated by cynicism that stems from the paternalistic discourse—loaded with clichés and a sense of superiority—of northern European countries regarding the countries in the south”. PIGS is, in short, “a critical look at notions such as democracy, institutional ethics, control strategies that dominate the collective subjectivity, etc. Through these artists’ works, it offers other possibilities, other visions, another viewpoint for altering the established order. PIGS speaks ironically and subversively of the socio-political implications of the crisis and its cultural roots, of an account within Europe that is full of paradoxes, of a fractured pan-European idea, and what the false construction of this idea means for the four countries in question”.
In view of the geographical area designated in the acronym, PIGS forms part of a broader project that starts in Artium, but will evolve on its arrival in the four countries featured in the exhibition, through a modification, in principle, of the artists selected in each place. On the other hand, it has been conceived as a living project that not only includes exhibitions but also a space for theorising, workshops and parallel activities in the countries involved.
In Artium’s case, besides the inaugural talk in which the curator, Blanca de la Torre will chat to several of the artists present in the exhibition, the Museum will programme during the month of March a series of documentary films including Catastroika, by the Greeks Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi, Bancarrota, by Fernando Díaz Villanueva and Juan Ramón Rallo, and En tierra extraña, by Iciar Bollain.
