Opening @”¿QUÉ DICES?” by Römer + Römer – Thursday 20th of April – 19h30

ESPRONCEDA, Center for Art and Culture, is pleased to present works from the new project of the Berlin based artists couple: RÖMER + RÖMER.

The title of the exhibition ¿Qué Dices? (What do you say? in English and originally Was sagst Du? in German) wants to condense the experience on which the works are based: the FUSION FESTIVAL in Lärz, which is held every summer in an old military airport and the artists have been attending since 2012.

It is an independent, non-commercial music festival, clearly expressing an era of freedom and of the overcoming of European history in the second half of the 20th century, and which has continued to the beginning of the present century.

Thousands of young people gather to celebrate life for a few days, in a community atmosphere, artistic creation and party around techno music.

Nina and Torsten actively live the contemporary world and they are actors and spectators of it: festivals, demonstrations, celebrations, rituals, and other events that bring people together in this globalized and yet so diverse world.

The ultimate product of their work is painting, however based on the photographic records taken by them at the events and happenings that they visit in their travels all over the world: Germany, China, Korea, India, Brazil, etc.

In the exhibition “¿Qué Dices?” the paintings on display want to convey this festive and very free event that is the Fusion Festival to us.
The formats of the pictures are unusual, they play with verticality or horizontality, creating a dynamic and lightweight exhibition. The works bring to us the energy of the festival, the youth of the people that are attending, the philosophy of transgression and no rules and the sense of community.

These specific groups of people, the meeting of individuals with a common hobby or purpose, is hypnotizing the artists in a powerful way and they document these themes and experiences in their paintings.

The main piece of the exhibition “Was sagst Du?” (What do you say?) is a 5 meter triptych that immerses us in the festive and communal atmosphere of the festival. The pictorial technique used by artists, the color points, speaks of the digital, of the immediate image, but in their case it is a meditated image, computer processed and then elaborated minutely, painted with four hands that put on the canvas thousands of dots of color, vibrating independently as the musical notes of the concert.

The exhibition in Espronceda, curated by Alejandro Martín, transmits the playful energy of the event, the concept of community and freedom. It welcomes a large photographic mural of the audience of the Festival Fusion and with a vertical and horizontal dynamism shows us the vibrant paintings of Römer + Römer.

It is Europe, it is the force of union, freedom, culture, transverse communities, celebration, life … a message that must continue more than ever in our contemporary world.