Review: DEMOCRACIA/ORDER

Abstract

DEMOCRACIA/ORDER : Station Museum of Contemporary Art. Houston, Texas: April 27–August 18, 2019. DEMOCRACIA/ORDER was a solo exhibition that took place earlier this year at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, Texas. It featured two series by the Spanish art collective DEMOCRACIA, formed by artists Ivan Lopez and Pablo Espana. The two artists have collaborated since 2006 and have consistently created projects that challenge the sociopolitical status quo. Their practice's hard-left approach aims to confront their audiences with uncomfortable topics such as the failure of democracy, social inequality, mindless consumerism, and the state as an apparatus of oppression, while pointing to our indolent complacency in regard to these issues. One of the series in the exhibition included a three-part operatic film titled ORDER (2018), accompanied by an installation that presented photographs, video stills, placards, and other ephemera borrowed from the performances captured in each part of the film. ORDER was shown alongside works from the installation We Protect You From Yourselves (2013–18). The exhibition sought to condemn contemporary capitalism, socioeconomic inequalities, and the failure of democratic politics. The film was shown in a dark room separated by a curtain from the We Protect You From Yourselves installation as well as from the other components of the ORDER installation. Before entering the screening area, viewers passed by the film's relics laid out on the floor of the exhibit space, or mounted in box frames on the museum's walls alongside film stills and photographic documentation. The curatorial choice to present the series in …