Exhibitions
The cult of beauty
The CCCB explores beauty as a cultural, social and political construction in an exhibition as fascinating as it is disturbing.
The cult of beauty can lead to misunderstandings. A priori, one might think that the exhibition would be a kind of reflection on beauty in the terms that artists of the transcendent and profound like Antoni Tàpies or Jaume Plensa might refer to it: beauty as a journey of self-knowledge, a search for perfection, an approach to the mystery of life, etc.... And, however, here, the proposal is different: beauty is considered as a cult of the body, as a strategy(ies) of seduction, this is an area that is located between aesthetics, sociology, psychology and, also, culture... Seen from this multifaceted point of view, the exhibition proposes a fascinating journey - not strictly chronological - that raises, for those who know how to look, a multitude of topics: gender issues and conflicts, consumption and industry, high and low culture, canon or rule and its transgression, imitation of stereotypes, etc.
The exhibition presents, among others, works of art by: William Hogarth, Angelica Dass, Laura Aguilar, Juno Calypso, Zed Nelson, Shirin Fathi, Narcissister, Ismael Smith, Isidre Nonell, Josep Masana, Colita, Sandra Gamarra, Esther Ferrer, Regina José Galindo, Maria Alcaide, Collectiu Ayllu, Lorenza Böttner, Marina Vargas, Arvida Byström or Harriet Davey.
But, perhaps, we found the objects and documentation on display more interesting: the first cosmetic trays for grinding and storing eye colors that come from the Neolithic, boxes of freckles for the face - originally made of rat hair - from time immemorial and that were used to hide facial defects (smallpox marks) but that continue to be sold today, the very high and excessive wigs of the period, the wasp waist corsets and girdles for pregnant women, the facial masks with LED lights, which supposedly improve everything, the “Hazeline Snow” cream that is supposed to have miraculous whitening effects on colored skin and that can still be found on the internet...
We said before that the tour is fascinating and this is because the viewer is witnessing a spectacle of curiosities and surprising effects, as seen by a tourist who -disguisedly- portrays exotic geographies -perhaps miseries- from the window of a bus. It is the universe of kitsch. There is an absurd dimension, but at the same time fascinating in these objects and by extension in some images.
We insist: the photographs of the Nigerian JD 'Okhai Ojeikere are very significant of what we say. In this case, they are images of hairstyles and headdresses of African women, very original, which the author has systematically documented since 1968, with the curiosity and scientific discipline of an entomologist. Hairstyles and headdresses that are an atlas of the wonderful and the fantastic and that -decontextualized- could pass for specimens of a botanical garden or a lunar landscape. Indeed, there is a surrealist breath that hovers over the exhibition and this look is one of the contributions of the show.
The Cult of Beauty, curated by Janice Li, was presented at the Wellcome Collection in London in 2023. Now, the CCCB - in line with the concept and line of its exhibitions - presents a new adaptation that, in addition to Janice Li, also includes the participation of Blanca Arias and Júlia Llull Sanz in the curation.
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