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Open: Mon-Fri 11am-7pm, Sat 10am-1pm & by appointment

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Artist: Carla Arocha + Stéphane Schraenen

Galería Fermay presents Floop, a solo exhibition by Carla Arocha + Stéphane Schraenen.

Who wouldn’t dream of having access to an escape route whenever a situation calls for it? Something you can just unfold and throw anywhere opening a portal that takes you elsewhere. Let it sink for a moment...

Floop as the title of the exhibition brings one to the verge of frustration and laughter. The idea of the whole show comes from thinking of the current affairs in the world that affect everyone and everything. It is a highly speculative approach on a shared feeling of helplessness and vulnerability when it comes to facing and dealing with the enormous challenges that lay ahead of us, both in the short and the long term. Seeing the world in flames, one wonders if there is a way to run away, to escape and put an end to this existential agony... It is this desire that Arocha + Schraenen aim to explore with Floop.

And so here we have got a show that builds upon notions of uncertainty and futility, but also of doubt and suspense. An exhibition that is the result of a series of gestures that inadvertently contribute to the derridian idea of différance —or what is the same— the perpetual postponement (deferral) of meaning. Floop requires a constant reorientation of perception —emotional, conceptual, spatial.

Silent mirrored glass structures stand still. Brightly coloured acrylic paintings palpitate. Black rubber circles await.

Discarded objects leaning against walls usually generate a sense of discomfort, as if witnessing a corpse. We forget about the original function to suddenly realise the amount of space it actually takes —time freeze, we stare at it. Arocha + Schraenen take and twist the motif of the window and turn it into a visual metaphor that points to our incapability to straighten a thwarted world; the non-sensical and unbearable reality that unfolds beyond the window is suddenly muted turning itself into a pristine object.

Bugs Bunny and Professor Calculus comes to mind with The Hole Idea. The warmth of our childhood memories comes to the rescue to comfort us among so much disbelieve. The cartoonish nature of this infantile form of evasion soon reveals itself as a brilliant and complex idea with so many implications. The paintings hanging on the wall with their shimmering and static colour field ovals lure us into them somewhat fulfilling an imaginary escape route procured by imagination.

Arocha + Schranenen work synchronously, like a Swiss watch. They both are acute observers, highly knowledgeable and with an overflowing sense of humour. Floop takes as a starting point the idea of escape —it doesn’t matter where to. Just escape.

References to the outside world are many but what it’s important here is Arocha + Schraenen’s ability to take those in for their own purposes. A conceptual endeavour that turns into a productive game of appropriation and reinterpretation. Minimal gestures with maximising effects.

Arocha + Schraenen has extensively exhibited in Europe, US ans South America. Recent exhibitions include: Unvollendet, Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt am Main (2022), Look Out, Galería Maior, Pollença (2019), The Aftermath, Gallery of Fine Arts, Split (2019), Sanguine/Bloerood, curated by Luc Tuymans (M HKA, Antwerp and Fondazione Prada, Milano), Concrete, Parasol Unit, London, UK (2016). Their work is part of institutional and private collections such as MoMA New York, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago Contemporary Art Museum, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, US), Clermont-Ferrand (FR).