The omens of radical change brought about by the advent of AI lead to an inevitable collision between two eras: one that is new, approaching at full speed and which we assume will be devastating; the other, more peaceful, somewhere between nostalgic and melancholic, which does not want to cease to exist. But as we have learned from Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton, it is in the collision, in the clash and in the blow, that another transformative force can sneak in: comedy.
In Modern Tics, Joaquín Aras presents a brief genealogy of physical humor as a starting point for rethinking our modern times, as he has been doing for a long time. The exhibition explores physical comedy from the beginnings of cinema to TikTok, drawing connections with artists who addressed this theme in their work, such as Alphons Allais and Yves Klein, among others. Based on a series of pieces that start from the idea of the visual gag as a way of constructing poetic images, Joaquín reflects on our connection with time, the absurdity of everyday life, and the technological devices we use to record all of this, albeit fleetingly.
Artificial Intelligence can create countless realistic and beautiful images, but surprisingly, it is incapable of producing a joke that is funny. For now. Vindicating the value of wit and mischief as a creative strategy—and as a defense mechanism against the risk of technical replacement—the exhibition proposes to think of humor as one of the last artistic bastions to illuminate a new realism from what is originally human.

Text from curator Sonia Becce

Exhibition at PIEDRAS gallery
Curator: Sonia Becce