“(…) the gestures and actions chosen by Ridao, are minimal or almost imperceptible. An example of this is the sculptural object “Plancha-Plancha” (Montevideo, 2008) The artist took the well known small appliance used to iron clothes and put on it the world-renowned Nike Swoosh. In a skim read, we can associate this gesture to an ironic comment that the artist makes about the non traditional expansion of products that many companies develop nowadays, taking advantage of the popularity of their corporate images. As we know, the contemporary human beings consume symbols rather than objects. In this case the renowned brand of athletic shoes and clothing would have expanded to the small appliances industry, but “Plancha” (Eng. “iron”) in Montevideo’s urban argot, designates a socio-cultural condition related to a sort of urban marginality. One that lately have developed own habits (as the fanaticism for the consumerism of sports brands with Nike at it’s peak) and cultural codes, highly visual as gregarious, linked in some sense with urban delinquency (“Plancha” in uruguayan police jargon means the page of a criminal record where its attached the mug shot.)
But Ridao’s work is not trying to protest the abuse of corporations or social problems of poverty and exclusion associated to this “Plancha” culture; it is simply showing the prejudices and the difficulties of the art field to face this phenomena without a negative judgement.”
Manuel Neves -art curator and critic (AICA)- Brasilia, 2013
Exhibited in (collective shows):
- 2008 – “Satélites de amor II Amor-Trabajo”, curated by Santiago Tavella, MNAV (National museum of visual art) Montevideo, Uruguay. (published in catalogue and press articles about the show)
- 2008.10 “Perfo-Música” (as part of the project “Anamaría Galería” by Ana Aironi and Melisa Marrero) Sala de Exposiciones Teatro. Facultad de Artes, UdelaR, MVD.
- 2010 – “Ghierra Intendente”, (as part of the store developed by Tiempofunky), SUBTE, Montevideo, Uruguay
and included in some press articles:
