Make Believe was the exhibition of the research work we produced for the Stanley Picker Fellowship 2006 at the SPG in Kingston. The show was also presented later on at the Palau de la Musica, Valencia.

Roberto (39) and Elba (3) are playing hide and seek

– Daddy where are you?
Roberto is hiding under a blanket in the living room
– I am in the book
Elba picks up a story book from the floor and looks eagerly through the pages
– Where are you? I can’t find you!
– I am in the book
– Yes, but... In which page are you?!
 

For Elba the space inside the book was as real as the room they were playing in. The question arising were obvious: How would it feel to perceive the world in this way? Not as an intellectual exercise but physically understanding that reality... And what would it mean? Children do not see the world confined to our reality, they live in a world were boundaries have not yet been defined. A world where imagination, dreams and space are one; where make believe is simply reality.

At the centre of El Ultimo Grito’s working practice is the desire to challenge perceptions and understandings of the world around us by investigating the relationships between men, objects and space. Make Believe offered the opportunity to explore an alternative reality, defined by the individual and not by the forces of consumer markets. The research project comprised three distinct areas of their practice:

Culturalscape_Moving Towards Resistance How does culture shape and dictate the way we perceive the world through language, art, photography, religion, science, architecture, urbanism, commerce, etc.

Psychologicalscape_Encouraging Exploration Objects that trigger mental spaces which might no be material but are definitely perceived and have their own dimension, influencing our feelings, dreams, fears, theories, etc.

Materialscape_Supporting Intervention The physical transformation of the existing landscape by appropriation, consumption, destruction, graffiti, waste, viruses, etc.

NEW PRIMITIVES
Both as installation and objects, these defined aesthetically and materially a new starting point for us. And where at the centre of our research as part of the Stanley Picker Fellowship.

Make Believe

Stanley Picker Gallery 2006
Stanley Picker Fellowship 2006

Photography
Gareth Gardner 2006

Support
Arts Council

Thanks
David Falkner
Catherine McDermott
Penny Sparke
Katharina Horstman
Guillian Russell
Stanley Picker Trust
Hong Ngo
Magnus Pettersen
2D 3D