Democracia – Order

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Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani presents ORDER, a solo exhibition by the collective Democracia (Iván López and Pablo España), accompanied by an essay by Marco Scotini.

The exhibition takes its title from the filmic triptych ORDER, shot in Houston, Dublin and London between 2014 and 2018. Conceived as an opera in three acts: Eat the Rich/Kill the Poor, Konsumentenchor and Dinner at the Dorchester, is inspired by Hesiod’s poem Works and Days.

In his accompanying essay, Marco Scotini points out a relationship with Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera: «“Grub first, then ethics” is the well-known refrain of the song that closes the second act of The Threepenny Opera. The unscrupulous, bourgeois criminal Mackie Messer and the prostitute Low-Dive Jenny (of Messer’s favorite Turnbridge brothel) alternate their voices in front of the lowered curtain, over the notes of Kurt Weil’s jazz-cabaret-foxtrot, but repeating the same words: “So first sort out the basic food position, then start your preaching!”. This Brechtian excerpt, which has now become proverbial, cannot but come to mind (at least it did for me) about the filmic triptych ORDER».

Between Brecht’s 1928 play and 2018’s ORDER there is about a century of time, and inevitably of history, in which labor rights and civil security rights were believed to be assured, while in fact contemporary neoliberalism and the triumph of new fascisms has destroyed them by fostering new servile labor relations and domination. ORDER‘s three acts, lasting a total of 70 minutes, critique the dissimilarities of contemporary capitalism through a cold aesthetic typical of contemporary mediatized soft power devices.

Eat the Rich/Kill the Poor focuses on the journey of a black Hummer limousine through the streets of Houston, passing through the industrial areas and large skyscrapers of the Texas city’s business center. The limousine’s journey highlights how the city’s urban development separates residents according to income and social class. Konsumentenchor explores the dynamics of contemporary consumerism and its innate drive to devour and exhaust beyond all consequence, to the point of environmental and ecological cataclysm. In Dinner at the Dorchester we finally witness the ultimate confrontation between the ruling class, which celebrates itself with its events of glitz and wealth, and a waitress who embodies the reality of the subaltern class.