"The Tree of the Good Life". Álvaro de la Vega

Описание: Suscríbete al canal de Rinoceronte Films en YouTube:    / @rinocerontefilms   Video about the piece "The tree of the good life" ("El árbol de la buena vida") from the sculpture Álvaro de la Vega (alvarodelavega.es) (Video directed by Nayra Sanz Fuentes)

Text about "The tree of the good life", written by Víctor Moreno:

According to Freud in his work "Civilization and Its Discontents", there are three sources that produce human suffering, namely the supremacy of nature, the expiration of man’s own body and his inability to regulate human relationships. The microcosm that presents the work of Álvaro de La Vega, "The Tree of the Good Life", invites us to discover certain Freudian resonances. From an inherited material (a tree, platforms for mussel cultivation ...), whose memory slips into the colours inherent in it, the sculptor composes a symphony of gestures that bring men and women represented in their most primitive form. As a silent waltz or a choreographed chaos, these independent figures in strange conjunction, could be any of us in rebellion against those cultural factors that constrain us and in turn, allow us to live together. Despite showing us a variety of figures, the work of Álvaro de la Vega presents to us the difficulty of interaction between the characters portrayed, as if each of these figures were focused solely on the hedonistic sense of the "good life" prior to any act of violence or barbarism. Perhaps it is not difficult to understand the allegory in these figures (and the agony) of our Western civilization, which is engrossed in generating prosperity oblivious to the cost of losing their lives together. Thus, the figures of "The Tree of the Good Life" do not talk to us about a time before ours, even though their faces show prehistoric forms and the material used is as old as the world, as the non-randomised underwear these figures are wearing indicates, these figures appeal to our present time. They may allude to the end of a civilization’s discontent that we have not been able to look ahead, with the consequent risk of enhancing our most primitive instincts in the guise of civilization.

"The Tree of the Good Life", a dreamer work full of irony. A "piece" (over three hundred actually) which is at the same time medieval and baroque, hopeful and apocalyptic, playful and critical. An artistic work that ultimately makes us feel as though we are the new Gulliver, on a trip to the country of debauchery.