Works * CV * PDF portfolio
Exhibitions and events:
ARCO 2015
Long ago, and not true anyway
Reconstitution
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson’s artistic practice concentrates on the phenomena of transition towards the post-fordist phase of political, social and cultural development. Exclusion and exploitation appear as the main issues in Castro and Ólafsson’s critique of flexible subjectivities, under pressure of the decline of the nation-state and the rise of global markets and corporations. In their work – executed across media and a variety of genres and disciplines, from political history, through gender studies and sociology – the artists critique an injured world of non-belonging and denied participation. By destabilizing the established symbolic structures of late-capitalist society, Castro and Ólafsson reengage their audience with disaffected cultural topos, emancipating both the work and its viewers from the societal dogmas that subversively inform the artists’ practice.
Castro and Ólafsson, collaborating since 1997, are based in Rotterdam and Berlin. Their recent exhibitions include Asymmetry, 2013, TENT, Rotterdam, The Unexpected Guest, 2012, Liverpool Biennial, Germans, Speak German! Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Under Deconstruction, Icelandic Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennial, 2011 curated by Ellen Bluemenstein, Manifesta 7, 2008. Their music video Lobbyists was awarded the Basis Prize of the prestigious Dutch art prize the Prix de Rome in 2009.
During their stay in Sydney, in collaboration with The Refugee Art Project, refugees and psychologist Nina Melksham, Castro and Ólafsson created a biomorphic audio sculpture. Using methods of relaxation and memory visualisation four refugees describe, in dialogue with Melksham, images of departure, transit and arrival, from memories of their journey to Australia. Visitors are invited to sit or lie in the sculpture, made from wood, shred cardboard, textiles, used clothes and layers of cello tape, and listen to the audio through headphones.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Bosbolobosboco #6 (Departure–Transit–Arrival), 2014
sculpture, sculptural audio installation, wood, cardboard, fabric, tape, headphones
installation view at 19th Biennale of Sydney
CAS029
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Dein Land Existiert Nicht, 2013
installation, neon sign, 190x700cm approx
installation view at Museums Quariter, Vienna
CAS008/2
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, ThE RiGHt tO RighT, 2012
installation, neon sign
Installation view at Liverpool Biennial 2012, photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones, courtesy Liverpool Biennial
CAS001
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, ThE riGHt tO RighT / WrOng, 2012
installation, newspapers
CAS023/1
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, ThE riGHt tO RighT / WrOng, 2012
installation, flashing neon sign, 250x27cm
CAS022/3
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, The Partial Declatation of Human Wrongs, 2012
print, inkjet print on paper
CAS024
Your Country Doesn’t Exist is an ongoing campaign, begun in 2003, for which the artists have traveled the world spreading the message, “Your country doesn’t exist” in different languages and through various visual modes, including billboards, TV advertisements, and wall-drawings.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Your Country Doesn’t Exist - Do It Yourself (UK), 2013
mixed media, pen drawing and acrylic on canvas, two c-type pritns, 120x90cm, 2 60x90cm
installation view at waterside contemporary, 2013
CAS006
Your Country Doesn’t Exist is an ongoing campaign, begun in 2003, for which the artists have traveled the world spreading the message, “Your country doesn’t exist” in different languages and through various visual modes, including billboards, TV advertisements, and wall-drawings.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Your Country Doesn’t Exist (copper stamp), 2013
sculpture, copper, rubber stamp, steel ink pad
installation view at waterside contemporary, 2013
CAS007
Your Country Doesn’t Exist is an ongoing campaign, begun in 2003, for which the artists have traveled the world spreading the message, “Your country doesn’t exist” in different languages and through various visual modes, including billboards, TV advertisements, and wall-drawings. In Venice, Castro and Ólafsson are presenting the project in three iterations. Preceding the Biennale, the artists staged and recorded a public performance that while singing the phrase: “This is an announcement from Libia and Ólafur: Your country doesn’t exist”. The vocalist (mezzo-soprano Ásgerður Júníusdóttir) sang the phrase in several languages, and was accompanied by both trumpet (David Boato) and guitar (Alberto Mesirca).
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste, 2011
video installation, HD video, costumes, plastic chairs, 15’ approx
video still
CAS004/1
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste, 2013
installation, neon sign, 160x750cm approx
Installation view at Venice Biennale
CAS003/1
Constitution of the Republic of Iceland represents Castro and Ólafsson’s first collaboration with Icelandic composer Karólína Eiríksdóttir. For this piece, the artists worked with the composer to create a score to which the Icelandic Constitution would be performed by soprano and baritone vocals, piano, double bass, and a mixed chamber choir. The composition was first publicly performed in March 2008 in Iceland, six months before the collapse of the country’s banking system. The video presented in Venice is a recent performance of the work, which was staged at The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service Television, and broadcast on Icelandic national TV in February 2011. The video was aired two times, the first of which having been the day the new elected Constitutional Assembly was set to begin revising the Icelandic constitution.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Constitution of the Republic of Iceland, 2011
video installation, SD video, colour, sound, 21 A1 posters, dotted T-shirts, dresses, wooden benches, 45’ approx
CAS016/1
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Who is afraid of red, yellow and you?, 2011
photography, c-print
CAS027/2
Exorcising Ancient Ghosts originated in Naples, after a research on Greco-Roman imaginary in the area and feminist archeology, focusing on pornography, sex and gender depiction in ancient times. The work is an audio-recording from a performance of a a Neapolitan woman and a Balinese man, reading a text-collage in Italian while they have sex. The text is composed from ancient Greek (juridic-, literary- political and philosophical) text fragments on women and foreigners and their position in society, A second audio recording registers a performance of a native English speaking couple, woman and man, reading an English translation of the same text, also while having sex.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Exorcising Ancient Ghosts, 2010/11
audio, 22 terracota vases, plexiglas, audio equipment, headphones, CDs, text on wall, 31’51” (English), 33’10” (Italian)
Installation view at Venice Biennale, photo: Lilja Gunnarsdottir
CAS010/ARC
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Demoliciones y excavationes, 2002/11
installation, 81 colour 35mm slides, projection, architectural intervention, wall text, table lamp
installation view at CAAC Sevilla
CAS020/3
In this video, Castro and Ólafsson portray lobbyists performing under working conditions, exploring the maelstrom surrounding their activity in Brussels and Strasbourg. In preparation for their work, the artists studied historical and contemporary sources constructing the figure of the lobbyist, interviewed and filmed a variety of people associated with lobbyist associations and civilian ‘watchdog’ groups, and dug into registration and music videos. They commissioned British reporter Tamasin Cave to write an article about the current situation and worked with british actress Caroline Dalton and the Icelandic reggae group Hjálmar to perform this text as a new song and the soundtrack to their video. The video touches on different genres, juxtaposing imagery with a newspaper article vocalized to dub music, and throughout the work humor is used as a binding agent. These contrasting and sometimes alienating elements trigger the viewer´s active involvement and reflection on the subject of the work as well as on the work and medium itself.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Lobbyists, 2009
video, HD video, colour, sound, 16’33”
CAS011/1
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Uterus Flags, 2008
installation, printed nylon flags
installation view in Manifesta 7, Rovereto, IT
CAS012
The video portrays two migrant caregivers from Ukraine and Romania and their (elderly) clients in their relationship and daily work in the area of Rovereto. For the video´s soundtrack the artists commissioned the Icelandic composer Karólína Eiríksdóttir to write a music score to an article, written by the young journalist Davide Berretta, describing this recent and rapidly growing phenomenon. Karólína wrote the music for a soprano, women choir and an oboe. The video combines footage, edited to the soundtrack, shot in and around two homes in Northern Italy with footage documenting the singers and the musician recording the cantata in Iceland - in all juxtaposing journalism, documentary making and classical contemporary music.
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Caregivers, 2008
video, SD video, colour, sound, 16’09”
CAS017/ARC
Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, Everybody is doing what they can, 2008
installation, video installation, video 33 portraits
CAS025/ARC
