End of game or end of game
- 1851. A dark, smoking coffee from London. Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky, two chess players who are experts in the field, face each other. In the center is the chess board and the 32 pieces in its corresponding boxes. The game starts and starts forming fast, the competition develops at high speed, a choreography has been created with a great movement. In 23 moves the game is decided. The immortal party has gone down in history as the most beautiful chess game ever played between Andersen and Kieseritzky. This party has become a referent of the romantic school, as it has become a reference for incredible games and aggressions.
The artist Mabi Revuelta (Bilbao, 1967) has presented her new work, Akromatico, in which she has taken up everything that happened in that historic game. Immortal party at the exhibition. Chess, a game that is grouped into different rules and movements, on this occasion has made it the central axis to structure and present its work, rethinking the binary and achromatic system of chess. The exhibition to be visited in Azkuna ZENTROA in Bilbao aims to show the artistic trajectory of the Bilbaíno artist. A road of almost 30 years, in which diverse disciplines are crossed and intertwined: films, choreographies, costumes, notes, photographs and sculptures, all come together in this intense and intelligent exhibition woven by historian and curator Susana Blas.
The game has been the subject on which Mabi Revuelta has often worked, and in this sense he has developed his artistic corpus. On this occasion, it has immersed itself in the chess universe, either as a social metaphor, as a space for reflection on language, as a game of war, or as an excuse to question the convention and the norm. We can say he takes the chess board and shakes all the pieces.
Let's start with the game.
“Opening the game: The opening covers the first moves of the party. From the initial position, he analyzes the possibilities of each side to guide his pieces.”
Dead nature with black pearls welcomes us to the exhibition. Located at the entrance of the room, it is a revisit to the work carried out in 2002. In it we will find hundreds of items covered with bright black lacquer, such as fruits, vegetables, geometric shapes and household utensils, on a large tablate. This is a large piece of work that evokes the old still lifes.
“Half game. At that time, the two sides, who have already developed their pieces, enter the highest level of conflict.”
It's interesting and commendable how the spatial design of the room has been solved in this exhibition. For example, in the white wall that gives access to the room, four squares have been drilled into which three mannequins have been elegantly placed. It is a gesture that works perfectly. In this first space, Revuelta has presented his last project, the Achromatic, a universe of its own and prosperous that starts from an immortal party. In the center of the space we find a glossy chess board made up of 64 squares, in which, standing and in human size, there are the lady and the king of one side and in the boxes of the other side, only the king and the castle. These pieces, however, wear clothes full of vivid colors and signed by Ibai Labega. These are particular chess pieces that show an intense chromatism away from the typical black and white and that can also be seen through smaller, hand-made prototypes.
It is noticeable that the artist has been working on this subject for years. On one side of the chessboard we will find numerous notes in which Revuelta collects reflections, interviews and images about chess at different times in order to share with the public various manifestations of cinema, art, philosophy and literature. Interesting quotations and curiosities can be found here, from Lolita de Nabokov to some Blade Runner passages.
We went through the next access and diagonally we found a giant screen that cuts the space in two. The film is directed by Revuelta and has two works synchronized, of the same duration and with soundtracks by Mursego and Itziar Madariaga. On the one hand, it shows the measured choreography of the dancers who embody the chess pieces we've seen in the previous classroom. They are pieces that, through choreographic and elegant steps, mark different movements along the table, imitating the movements that took place in that immortal game.
The second film has resurrected the artist Marcel Duchamp and we see him playing the same chess game, competing against himself. It is known that this avant-garde artist had a great fondness for chess, as in 1923 he said that he would leave art to dedicate himself to chess, as he considered it a more intellectual exercise than art. The French Chess Federation granted him the title of Chess Master in 1933 and the title of Chess Master in the Fifth National Chess Congress of France. He was also elected a member of the French team for the Chess Olympics. A year earlier he wrote the manual L’opposition et les cases conjugées sont réconciliées taking into account the final matches. Duchamp's shadow is present in this middle game.
“Match end. It has few pieces. It is another phase of departure and the technique is fundamental”
At the end of the game, we are offered the possibility to make a retrospective in the artistic production of Revuelta through the Timeline. It reaffirms the work carried out during all these years by the artist awarded the Segment Artea Award 2016. Some of these works were presented in the exhibition held at Artium in 2015. I liked the system that they have followed to classify works from different eras and disciplines. Again, immersed in the metaphor of chess, they have taken into account the four forms or times of play: romantic, scientific, hypermodern and dynamic. Through this rapid gesture, they have evidenced the construction of the artist's discourse and have united their creative processes with the different stages of chess history, in a beautiful sewing work.
For the one who is curious, the victory in 1851 was for Adolf Anderssen.
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