An involuntary trace

Curated by This is Jackalope

Sala A, La Casa Encendida

An Involuntary Trace is a narrative developed in 5 chapters: three individual exhibitions with the artists Agniezska Polska (February 4th – April 4th, 2021), Jonathan Baldock (July 7 – September 26, 2021) and Jon Rafman (October 13, 2021 – January 9, 2022) a dual exhibition with artists David Horvitz and Javier Cruz (April 14 – June 20, 2021) and a performative dialogue between Hanne Lippard and Claudia Pagés (date to be confirmed in Autumn 2021).

A trace is a vestige, sign or indication of a something that has already happened. We leave traces all the time, whether or not we realise it. One could say that “we are” to the extent that we leave a trace; the footprints we make are the measure of our current (or past) existence. Our presence is perceptible whether we want to be perceived or not; our involuntary trace says much more about us than the marks we deliberately make. Involuntary traces guide others, providing information about our identities even if we are not present.

The year 2020 has drawn a red line that forces us to consider new ways of existence. The world as we knew it is changing, and our bodies and minds are following suit. In the cycle An Involuntary Trace, we want to shine a spotlight on everything that ends up on the sidelines, identify clues that will give us insight into this complex new world, and make all that information visible through exhibitions, narratives and performances where fiction, imagination, humour, body and language become essential and give us a less rational orientation and perspective.

We want to speak from a certain position of invisibility, to talk about what is barely visible, without being seen. An Involuntary Trace is an exercise developed as a narrative comprising four chapters of exhibitions, one performative interlude and an epilogue in catalogue form. We aim to converse about what being / living in world today means: rethinking consciousness and the increasingly complex notion of identity; adapting perception and language to a new environment; and understanding the body as a soundboard and source of sensory knowledge.