CONTRA LA INERCIA AGAINST INERTIA - granada cultura

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In a painting titled Ruido (2008) [p. 75] we see a
speaker before his microphone, and although his
enormous head has some Stalin-like features, it
does not matter who he is exactly. He is giving an
electoral speech, a military harangue, or perhaps a
religious sermon (and maybe all three at once), but
without doubt he makes us think that the value of
his speech is inversely proportional to the similarly
enormous, crazy size of his hands – we understand
that this is merely media noise, lies and promises.
This time the source of visual inspiration does not
come from animated cartoons, but from a not very
well known Spanish short film known as El Orador
(1928). Its author was Feliciano Vítores, one of the
pioneers of Spanish spoken movies, and in it we can
see, with no editing other than what the unmoving
camera can record, one of the famous suitcaselectures
that Ramón Gómez de la Serna used to give
at that time, wherever he happened to be. In these
lectures – precursors of what would later be called
performances – Gómez de la Serna used to take with
him a suitcase or trunk full of a variety of objects
that he would show the public and describe as an
excuse to build up his fragmentary, ingenious view
of the world. At one point in the film he places an
enormous white glove on his right hand and presents
it as the “convincing hand.” What then follows is a
thinly disguised criticism of the dissuasive power of
political rhetoric assembled under a brilliantly crazy
succession of metaphors and images. We should
remember that Mussolini had already risen to power
in Italy, Hitler was about to take over in Germany
and Spain was close to the political disturbances
that would lead to the Second Republic. For the moment,
Ruido is the only canvas where Paco Pomet
has directly approached the question of politics, and
yet not a small part of his works seem to focus on a
number of paradigmatic elements of the Society of
the Spectacle: the time dedicated to work and leisure,
the automobile, technological progress, the mass
media and even armed conflict.
In the scenarios chosen by Pomet, we often recognise
many of the elements that make up the most
stereotyped, standard image of the USA as set in collective
imagery through classic cinema of the mid-
20th century – large old cars with sinuous bodies,
clothing and uniforms, the wide avenues lined with
unmistakable vernacular architecture, and even the
street furniture. This stage design of the American
Way of Life is sometimes cited even by references
to North American art: American Neogothic (2009)
is, on the most obvious level, a reinterpretation or
updating of American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood
(1891-1942), but the building placed in the background
could also be reminiscent of the petrol sta-