mmmm...retrospective

Retrospective exhibition of the Spanish artist collective group mmmm… in RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, from July 21st to September 9th 2017, sponsored by the Embassy of Spain in Canberra and RMIT Gallery. mmmm… is a collaboration between Emilio Alarcón, Alberto Alarcón, Ciro Márquez and Eva Salmerón, who have been creating projects for public spaces since 1998 from Madrid. The exhibiting project explores the relations between seemingly disparate art works. The outcome integrates a selection of fourteen projects in three constant intentions: interact, communicate and interfere. The exhibition layout articulates the relation across projects and public space differentiating three scales: the scale of urban public space (or scale), the new media public space scale and the individual scale of public space. These integration/articulation emphasises the interdisciplinary nature of the collective’s art work. The exhibition links “Amazon Virus” and “BUS” under the concept of communication, it relates a computer virus, which reports the Amazon’s deforestation, to an obvious bus stop, make up of three large sculptures that form the letters BUS and become a landmark in Baltimore. Most of the selected projects share the intention of interaction: the “Meeting Bowls” are large urban objects to foster dialogue in small groups, “Telemadre” is a social exchange model that connects unemployed mothers with people who would like to eat home-cooked; both works make sense only by means of participation. Interfering with the context, use/users or materiality is in mmmm…s’ projects genesis and materialization. “Brick Car” may be interpreted as an interference of the building industry into public space or urban mobility, pedestrians who run into fifty “Human Rabbits” invading downtown Melbourne could question how immigration interferes with identity. The exhibition presents 14 interdisciplinary works between art, design and architecture. The selected documentation includes all stages of the work process: development and communication drawings by the artist collective, images of the completed works as well as their public perception in social media. The exhibition consist of 15 drawings and 110 photos displayed on the walls, 7 videos displayed on five screens, two physical artworks and series of 5 easels to support different media. The easels are specifically design for the exhibition, their position articulates the gallery in three intervals according to the projects’ public scale, orienting the visitors’ perception in a non-panoptic sequence. The exhibition included the following public programs: the opening on July 20th, was introduced by J.C. Gafo Acevedo, Consul General of Spain in Melbourne and had Dr M. Lozanovska as the speaker. The public talk Street actions in an age of heightened risk with Mick Douglas & mmmm… collective on July 27th at RMIT Gallery. The street action Human Rabbits through the city on July 28th, with fifty participants and ten volunteers. Human Rabbits was covered by several media and was one of the projects exhibited at RMIT gallery.