PARTICIPANT INC presents When it rains, all shines black, the first U.S. solo exhibition of Barcelona-based artist Alejandro Vidal. Known for his large-format photographs, videos, and installations that assert a post-cinematic aesthetic of conflict, seen through a generational lens that distinguishes the obsolescence of transgression in societies obsessed with control, the exhibition will consist of new works in photography and video.

Vidal’s new photographs for When it rains, all shines black are a loose re-staging of a common form of popular political dissent in Latin American countries, involving the symbolic washing of the national flag in front of government buildings. Shooting at night from a hermetically remote location, usually from inside a car and illuminated only by the glare of headlights, Vidal de-objectifies the original act through distancing strategies, insinuating a subtle yet threatening rupture. The location and actions appear inscrutable, foreboding a dystopic resistance or enacting a B-movie-esque ceremony of an imaginary secret society. The flags are unidentifiable, and the actors are theatrically styled to produce a “vernacular upheaval, insinuating those forms of cultural subversion that are more powerful for going undetected.” (Erica Papernik, Crime and Punishment, Tallinn Kunstihoone, 2006). 

Co-organized by SEACEX, Sociedad Estatal para la Accion Cultural Exterior.