André Romão: The Winter of (our) Discontent

Kunsthalle Lissabon (Lisbon)
André Romão: The Winter of (our) Discontent

Every time a political ideology is deposed by the use of force or violence – either through a military coup, a democratic revolution or through any other method –, one of the first casualties is that of the limits defining the public space. In this, most often, public statues tend to be regarded as the focus point expressing and exulting ideas and creeds of the now deposed government. The statue is decapitated and the body falls with it. The overthrowing of these symbolic forms contains in itself the act of defeat, of downfall but also of fragmentation and breakage of what was considered to be the perfect representation of an ideal state.

Devoid of all the paraphernalia involving the legitimating process of particular ideological institutions, the act of “removed from power” emphasizes the fact that a transformation in public sphere has occurred. The ideological-political discourse doesn’t incorporate words; it makes the change evident physically. In The Winter of (Our) Discontent, by André Romão, an overthrown sculpture changes the spatial limits of Kunsthalle Lissabon. The normal order and law defined by the objects favour a formal equilibrium, however the sculpture laying down on the floor confines it, the space becomes smaller, constrained. As is the case in closed societies, the statue also contains with it the monumental idiosyncrasies particular to the surplus of authoritarian states.

In previous works Romão questioned the usage of public space – an area that because of its accessible nature becomes a space of conflicts. The critical point becomes apparent when the artist asks us to start to question the character of a system of government. This common place is controlled by means of its individualization. That is the other side of the exhibition, since the “Winter of Discontent” refers also to a period in British history of strikes and social protests, between 1978-79, when trade unions contested government economic actions that seemed sensible and judicious under for the time.

Published at Lapiz, Revista Internacional de Arte. Año XXIX, Núm. 259/260 (152), February/March 2010 España. André Romão's exhibition view