Make It Feel Like an Accident

                    “The contemporary is the one whose eyes are struck by the beam of darkness that comes from his own time.” 

—Giorgio Agamben

Through a technical mechanism of switching between concealment and revelation, the installation starts from the idea of accident, understood as that which interrupts a "normal" flow of functioning.

In the midst of the device that builds a scene, while the lights remain on, emitting brief flashes, various reflectors, diffusers and projection screens are presented as elements capable of receiving, diffusing, dispersing or bouncing the light.

However, when the lighting is completely turned off, invisible messages appear, traced with photoluminescent paint, pre-charged with light. These texts emerge on the different elements of the scene, revealing themselves as aphorisms or questions that challenge the viewer about the contradiction of contemporary society, culture and a world mediated by the illusion between what is visible and what is not.

The reflections that structure the work are nourished by contemporary critical thought, the Situationist movement and demonstrations regarding the consumer society, as well as distrust towards the institution and authoritarianism. At the same time, it incorporates the author's own personal considerations, inscribed in the same line of questioning, in which the work becomes a space of poetic and critical resistance to the mechanisms of control and appearance that shape the modern experience.

Credits

Special thanks to Maíra das Neves, Paula Bruna, Marla Jacarilla, Silvia Renda, Rosa Lendínez, Calzxn Roto, Caro Durian, Juan Francisco Segura, Vatiu Nicolás Koralsky and Dennise Valeria Céspedes Marambio for their support and contributions.

Acknowledgements to Sala Beckett for providing material and to the following entities for their involvement in the process: CCCB, Fundació Joan Miró and La Capella.

Juan Antonio Cerezuela

Juan Antonio Cerezuela (Cartagena, 1982) is a visual artist with an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts (2005) and a PhD in Visual and Intermedia Arts (2014). In ruin, fire and light, his work finds some of its main avenues of exploration through various metaphorical associations of forms of oppression or dissidence.

His work has been exhibited in centres such as Castell de Montjuïc, Born CCM, the Santa Mònica, Fabra i Coats or MAC Gas Natural Fenosa. Some of his solo exhibitions have taken place at Centro Párraga (Murcia), Center 424 (Belgrade), Espronceda (Barcelona), 13ESPACIOarte (Seville), Fundación Gabarrón (Murcia) and CEART (Madrid). He received a production grant from the Region of Murcia Institute of Cultural Industries and Arts (ICA) (2021), the La Escocesa research and experimentation grant (2020) and the Exchange grant from Homesession (2022).

He recently received the Alfonso X Award of the Region of Murcia in the new media art category (2025). He won the first Juan Gil-Albert International Award of the Alicante Institute of Culture (IAC) (2024), first prize in Art Emergent de Sabadell (2017) and first prize at the 31st Muestra de Arte Joven in La Rioja (2015). He was also a finalist for the Mislata Miquel Navarro Biennial (2023) and the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize (London, 2019).

He has been an artist in residence at La Escocesa and Fabra i Coats.

www.juanantoniocerezuela.com