Love Is In The Air (Remixed): Carlos Aires

The first solo exhibition, of the Spanish artist Carlos Aires, in Turkey opens up at CDA-Projects Galeri in Misir Apartmani, Istanbul.

Titled “Love Is In The Air (Remix)”, the exhibition is composed of a selection that Aires has exclusively tailored for Istanbul. In this selection compiling his works from different series, Aires, in addition to his photographs, with vinyl arrangements prepared by cutting long play album disks and with his works referring to famous love songs as well as to Baroque-Period’s icons, leads the audience into a colorful and ironic world full of love, relationships, memories and pains.

Presented on the gallery space with a special arrangement, the series of works titled “The Enchanted Woods” is composed of pastoral images, peaceful and silent, enchanting Romantic-Period poets and artists. There are no people to be seen, and those who view these postcard-perfect photograph frames of the pastoral landscapes have absolutely no idea that these idyllic landscapes are actually the scenario for the wildest, kinkiest forms of gay sex. Nature, as a silent witness to the relation-based-meetings of gays and the trips they make to accomplish these, is posed without exposing herself. Here we find a postmodern form of trompe l’œil, except what is being trompé is not the eye but our way of reading photographs.

The impressive iconography that Carlos Aires has brought together with cut vinyl disks is craftsmanly combined with a repertoire from sexuality, religion, porn, pop culture. With its most crude form, reality comes together with the glimmer of the entertainment world, removing the differences between these layers and increasing the contrast.

Fernando Castro Flórez  remarks as follows regarding Aires’ works: “These vinyl disks cut with absolute precision create a kind of auto-biographical altar where desires, historical and religious, folklore and recreation of any order are allegorized as violence. At a time when any artist or curator pretends to be camouflaged as a DJ, Aires recovered literally obsolete material to tell what happens with the intention that the fetish may have some potential for criticism. Without falling into the hermetic, nor into the propagandist, he spins narratives that parasitize what I would call the picnolepsia musical with narcolepsia information.”

“Love Is In The Air (Remix)” could be seen at Galeri CDA-Projects in Misir Apartmani between May 18th and June 16th, 2012.

Carlos Aires

Born in Malaga, Spain in 1974, Carlos Aires completed his master studies on European Arts and Cultures in England after his former education on Sculpture in Spain. He attended various artist programs and trainings in Netherlands, Belgium and USA. He owns many awards and grants including the Generacion first prize in Madrid awarded by the Du Pont Museum from Tilburg, Netherlands. Also, Aires’ works are now proudly hosted by many distinguished museums and special collections, including the Biedermann Museum, Germany; Basque Contemporary Art Museum, Spain; Austria Applied Arts Museum, Vienna and the Arter collection in Istanbul.

Carlos Aires lives and works in Antwerp (Belgium) and Madrid (Spain).