«Apparatus II» at MEIAC Badajoz, Spain
09.05—08.09.2024
curated by José Alberto Ferreira
«(…) For years, Rui Macedo has been proposing simulacra that confirm the uncertainty of reality. Painting is understood as a skin or surface capable of creating an image that doesn't correspond to reality. Illusion or deception, these visual traps, are the basis for his understanding of the limits of painting and what he calls the "apparatus". I have the feeling that Rui Macedo would welcome it if some of his viewers felt like "victims" in the sense that Ilya Kabakov gives it, considering the way he examines and evaluates the artwork and combines it with his associations and memories, not without a certain feeling of being overwhelmed by the intensity of the atmosphere created by his installations.
(…) Rui Macedo’s painting also plays with the imperceptible. Reality does not give itself away under any circumstances, because it is not based on the inaccessibility of a secret. Here, reading is writing itself, painting itself. Paradoxically, by exposing painting to its inexpressible state, Rui Macedo opens up the discourse of painting rather than closing it down. It’s as if he wanted to rewrite painting. It’s why I think of Derrida and what he calls archi-writing, and his ideas about traces as a simulacrum of displaced presence, which only refers to another trace, which is always the trace of another trace, and the trace of the obliteration of the trace. Rui Macedo’s painting is a series of traces that reveal themselves while protecting the artifice. Like a fabric, his painting goes beyond the linear concept of painting and its own margins, to settle into an unsaturated context that is always open to new determinations. The canvas that envelops the canvas.»
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue essay by David Barro, 2023
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The solo exhibition "Apparatus II" curated by José Alberto Ferreira, was held from May 9 to September 8, 2024, at the Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (MEIAC) in Badajoz, Spain.
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On the occasion of this exhibition, it was published the catalogue «Apparatus» (PT/EN) supported by Eugénio de Almeida Foundation.
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José Alberto Ferreira (1952, Portugal) holds a degree in History and a Master's in Art History.
He collaborates with several organizations, providing courses and seminars. He directed and produced the Escrita na Paisagem Festival (2004-2012), where he programmed projects and works by both national and international artists in theatre and transdisciplinary arts. He was the curator for the project INTERsection: Intimacy and Spectacle, which was part of the 2011 Prague Quadrennial. He also directed and programmed the São Vicente Cycles in Évora (2011-2017). Currently, he is the Artistic Director of both the Lá Fora Festival and the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation’s Centre for Art and Culture (2018-2024).
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David Barro is the director of the Es Baluard Museum of Contemporary Art in Palma. He has been the director of the DIDAC Foundation, managing director of the Luis Seoane Foundation, advisor to the Barrié Foundation, and responsible for its International Contemporary Painting Collection. He has also served as the artistic director of events such as the Festival of Sustainable Artistic Action SOS 4.8 in Murcia, Look Up! Natural Porto Art Show in Porto, and the Espacio Atlántico fair in Vigo. In 2023, he was the curator of the guest country at the Porto Design Biennale and served, as a member of the Cooperativa Performa, as co-director of the first four editions of Plataforma, the Festival of Performing Arts in Santiago de Compostela. He was also the artistic director of the first three editions of MadBlue Summit, the summit of culture, science, and innovation for sustainable development in Madrid, which was recognized as an event of exceptional public interest by the Government of Spain. Editor and founder of DARDOmagazine, since 2018, he has worked for the Galician Innovation Agency (Junta de Galicia), advising on the Design Program for Innovation and Sustainability 2024 to incorporate design and artistic processes in the corporate world.