CHEMTRAILS_1
In 1975 Dutch/Californian artist Bas Jan Ader took to sea in the smallest sailboat ever to cross the Atlantic. Nine months later his boat was found half-submerged off the coast of Ireland, but he had vanished without a trace.[1]
In 1967 a group of yippies celebrated at the 5th Avenue in New York City the end of Vietnam war: “Allan Ginsberg runned into fast food restaurants, jumping and shouting: ‘The war is over! The war is over!’. This fake forced goverment to deny the fact.[2]
In 1940 Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi SS, made a secret wartime mission to Montserrat Abbey near Barcelona in search of what the Ahneneber believed was the Holy Grail. It is said that he never found it.[3]
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[1] “Here is Always Somewhere Else: The disappearance of Bas Jan Ader”, Rene Daalder, 2007.
[2] grupo autónomo a.f.r.i.k.a., L. Blisset, S. Brünzels, Manual de guerrilla de la comunicación, Virus, Barcelona, 2000.
[3] Los secretos del universo, ed. Jo tía!, Madrid, 2012.
Chemtrails is a curatorial project focused on the Narrative in Contemporary Art, regarding especially popular culture ways of telling. By working with Paco Chanivet, Alejandra Avilés, Eliana Beltrán and Rafael Perez Evans, artists in residency at Hangar, on the basis of rumour and legend’s creation and its viral dissemination, we propose to produce a common project in the format of an anthology of tales. The aim of this narrative experiment is delving into the links between art, literature and experience through hybrid formats.
Jaime González Cela and Manuela Pedrón Nicolau are Encura curators-in-residence at Hangar (Barcelona, ES), in association with Curators’ Network.
Hangar is a centre for art research and production located in Barcelona, Spain. Hangar’s mission is to support visual artists and other cultural agents during the different moments of their art production processes as well as to contribute to the best development of their projects. Hangar facilitates equipment, facilities, production assistance and a suitable context for free experimentation and knowledge transfer. Hangar is located in the Poblenou neighborhood in Barcelona and in a mid 19th Century that was originally designed for the textile industry. At present, and after the centre was extended to the adjacent warehouses, the buildings used by Hangar cover a total surface of 2,600 m2.
