Sant Sebastià. From Icon to Myth IV. 'Locus amoenus' Cruising Landscapes

“Locus amoenus – Paisajes de cruising” (cruising landscapes) is structured in four concepts: frequency, boundary, displacement and objectification. Each of these concepts is sustained by four proposals that underscore them or generate connections that allow them to be extended in order to continue the process of study and monitoring, a monitoring that has as its medium the Es Baluard Observatori.

The is a curatorial proposal in progress, by way of an experiment, which takes the most experimental space in the museum as a territory for tests and laboratory in order to confront the public with a research thesis proposed by Juanjo Oliva, as a curator through exploration of proposals and mediation before the diverse audiences and interlocutors.

The concept of frequency is addressed by Damià Vives (Artà, 1981), a creator who forms part of the ‘Interconfusió’ project which seeks the observation of the intercultural event in our societies. Vives proposes a comparison: two spaces in transit and different frequencies, where the carnal abyss and ineffectiveness of desire overlap, generating a state of momentary confusion which nevertheless ends up feeding the sexual urge.

Jorge Fuembuena (Zaragoza, 1979) presents a proposal on frontiers. Landscapes in activation versus deactivated landscapes which run in parallel, in tacit agreement and where the idea is upheld that each of these landscapes admits that its own skin may be and enter into contact with the other. Skins in symbiosis that situate the boundary of the abyss that exists between them.

The concept of displacement is dealt with by Miquel Planas (Palma de Mallorca, 1961) based on two lines inscribed in the landscape, two levels which are apparently intended to specify a space, but the voluntary lack of register makes it nearly impossible for us to interpret them, placing a doubt before us: knowing what territory we are in, behind the boundary.

These three investigations are complemented with links to cinematographic language via a reference to The Piano Teacher (2001) by Michel Haneke, which puts forward the concept of objectification, an elementary component for understanding the cruising ‘set’ where the subject opposes identity and referencing.

Finally, the opportunity to approach the theme and/or subthemes generated by cruising is proposed through bibliographical references of authors who have dealt with this practice from different angles. These lectures are presented with the aim of strengthening, in advance, visions and nuances that are necessary for interpreting these kinds of landscapes.

The material gathered is designed to observe nominality through sexual desire, which is nowadays weakened by the contemporary need for information and recording in order, from this base, to activate the participation and tolerance of an otherness which, in this experiment, is signified by what are defined as hegemonic masculinities, masculinities prone to conservatism of contact and gradation.

Locus amoenus seeks to deconstruct airtight compartments that determine who occupies the landscape. We understand cruising as the place of extremely effective, heterogeneous tangentialities and transversalities. Any attempt to establish or classify sexual nominality is a simplification of the intrinsic nature of this type of space.

Juanjo Oliva is a graduate in Art History from the University of Barcelona (UB), a restorer and conservator of movable property, (Diputación de Barcelona), and holds an advanced degree in Museology, Iconography and Cataloguing (Gregorian University of Rome). At present he directs ‘Interconfusió’ (‘a new artistic look at diversity’) in collaboration with ‘L’Espai Avinyó’ Barcelona, as part of its intercultural area.

Activity (*): 18th January at 6.30 pm.

• Visit to the Observatori space followed by talk in the museum’s Auditori.
• Free activity.
• Limited capacity.

(*) The talk will deal with explicit matters regarding this sexual practice, and is recommended for adult audiences.

Coordinated by: Juanjo Oliva