"REPETITIONS" (rehearsal)
(FROM OCTOBER, 1ST 2008 TO JUNE, 30 2009)
Jeleton, comprised of two Spanish visual artists, wanted to take advantage of its residency for a fresh look at the French chanson. To do this, they use a guitar and a drum kit (two typical rock instruments) as well as drawings. Noting that a song can have a different resonance depending on the context in which it is performed, Jesús Arpal and Gelen Alcántara carefully choose song words and writers in order to take part in a clever game of twisting the sense. As for the drawings, they illustrate and reveal the story hiding behind each song, whether from yesteryear or today. These "storia", illustrated by Jeleton, are displayed on the walls of their studio.
During their residency, they will also be showing a selection of their previous works - drawings, musical performances, publications - and unveiling their current directions for research.
A video piece will be released in spring 2009, as a testimony of their journey at the CENTQUATRE.
BIOGRAPHY
The Jeleton collective was founded in Barcelona (Spain) in 1999 by Gelen Alcántara (Murcia, 1975) and Jesús Arpal (Bilbao, 1972), both photographers, performers, draughtsmen and authors trained at the Cuenca Faculty of the Arts (UCLM).
The held their first exhibition at the Ferran Cano Gallery (Barcelona) in 2002. 2004 saw the beginning of a residency at the Hangar, a centre of contemporary art production in Barcelona, which led them to present a number of projects at different Hangar Obert festivals : London-Athens, Las Lilas de Jeleton and Decora-Chan! At the same time, the pair participated in several joint exhibitions such as Photo España in Madrid (2004). In 2005, Jeleton was invited to the second "Processos Oberts : P_O_2_Queda la marca", a project based on the transparency of the artistic process and interacting with the population of the post-industrial city of Terrassa, near Barcelona.
Jeleton's productions stand out for their eclecticism and adapt to all sorts of media such as posters, vinyls, books etc. They hide stories which blend the banal with the sublime. Jeleton's work thus transcends the barriers between the different artistic categories, as well as the divide between amateurs and professionals.
