Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

The video shows two policemen wearing Spanish anti-riot uniforms, dancing a tango version of the famous Eurhythmics 80´s song in the luxurious and extremely decorated ballroom space of the XIX century palace Museum Cerralbo in Madrid. The fantastic lyric of the song “ Sweet dreams are made of this ” is the central motor of the piece. The tango version cove song has been arranged by the bandoneon player Fernando Girdini and recorded exclusively for the video. In its origins, tango was mainly a dance between two men. Tango was the result of the cultural mix of locals with African, Italian and Hispanic immigrants. It was originally forbidden by the church and rejected by high society, which resulted in its development in poor suburbs and working-class slums. The video reflects about the last years crisis, 15M movement, the violent riots, Cataluña independency, brutality of Spanish police and military forces and the recent antidemocratic Spanish law ” Ley Mordaza ” (the Gag Rule), becoming illegal and punished to take photos or videos of police forces or use of the police uniforms without the Government’s permission. Desire, power, decadence and frustration: they shoot horses, don´t they?

Carlos Aires was born in Ronda, Spain in 1974. He obtained a bachelor in Fine Arts at the University of Granada in Spain. Upon graduating in 1997, he moved to the Netherlands and completed his postgraduate studies at Fontys Academy (Tilburg, Netherlands), HISK (Antwerp, Belgium) and Ohio State University (Ohio, USA). He was honored with prestigious grants and awards, including: OMI Residency (USA), Edith Fergus Gilmore Award (USA), Generation2008 Caja Madrid (Spain), Young Belgian Art Prize (Belgium), 1st Award Young Andalusian Artists (Spain), Fulbright (USA) and De Pont Atelier (the Netherlands). He has participated in numerous exhibitions in national and international institutions, such as: CAC (Malaga, Spain), MACBA (Barcelona, Spain), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), Imperial Belvedere Palace (Vienna, Austria), MUSAC (Leon, Spain), BB6 Bucharest International Biennale (Bucharest, Romania), B.P.S. 22 (Charleroi, Belgium), 5th Thessaloniki Biennale (Thessaloniki , Greece), Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (Mexico City, Mexico), Canada Contemporary Art Museum (Montreal, Canada). His work can be found within significant public collections: ARTIUM (Spain), MACBA (Spain), Fondation Francès (France), ARTER (Turkey), CAC (Spain), Maison Particulière (Belgium), Ministry of Culture of Spain, Progress Art (Saudi Arabia), National Belgium Bank (Belgium), 21c Museum (USA), MAK (Austria) among others.