BLANDNESS
Barcelona, 2023.
The video and photographs in the ‘Blandness’ series refer to blandness as an absence of defining qualities, a place for non-doing and at the same time a potential space for change. According to philosopher François Jullien in his ‘In praise of blandness’ (1991), blandness (which slowly became a positive quality in Chinese aesthetic and ethical traditions) constitutes the balanced and unnamed union of all potential values. The bland embodies a reality whose very essence is change and provides an infinite openness to the breadth of human expression and taste.
Still from ‘Blandness Vídeo’. ARCO 2023, Madrid.
In the video Teresa Estapé shows a white, creamy and hot porridge, stirred slowly and repeatedly by an affectionate hand, which, like a domestic scene, suspends and amplifies time. The simplicity of this non-acting action opens a space of recollection, dilated and undemanding, to highlight the lack of such places in the community.
Photographic diptychs ‘Blandness’. ARCO 2023, Madrid.
Diptych of photographs ‘Blandness’ framed and printed on Hahnemühle paper. ARCO 2023, Madrid.