Excerpt from the performance The Penitential Tyrant: Dolores is Pain at Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida 2021

America's Sweethearts, 2021

Mixed media
Variable dimensions

The installation consists of covering the floor of the exhibition space with an entire floor surface (carpet and linoleum) measuring 21,45m x 13,7m (394m2) that was previously removed from an abandoned movie theater hall in Spain. The recovery of this element used in most cinemas around the world and the new use given to it is an exercise in archeology, a restorative gesture and, ultimately, a metaphor—or, rather a metonym—of where industrialized leisure activities are heading. However, when the carpet and linoleum are placed in the museum with its traces of dirt reflecting a lack of respect for hygiene and social protocols, it clashes with a space that is subject to closely respected norms, triggering the temptation to differentiate high and low culture, audiences and consumers, sophistication and barbarism.

The video piece Popcorn (2012) is projected on a suspended screen in the center of the installation.

America's Sweethearts also served as stage for the performance The Penitential Tyrant: Dolores is Pain (2019).

Images from:

1-2 - Poscards from the exhibition A Very White Flower, Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida
3-6 - Installation views at Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida
7 - Documentation of the performance The Penitential Tyrant: Dolores is Pain (2019) at Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida

8 - Excerpt from the performance The Penitential Tyrant: Dolores is Pain at Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida 2021

For more information: A Very White Flower, Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida

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