Agatha Ruiz de la Prada - MAC (Barranco)

Get Real (1998) 
Directed by Simon Shore 

"Be realistic, demand the impossible". Why not? Sometimes being realistic means, indeed, to have no creative freedom and above all no real desire to escape ideological imprisonment.

When Steven, a 16 year old student, starts frequenting public toilets hoping to hook up and have random sex with unknown men, he looks aloof and somehow emotionally unattached. His only confident is Linda, a girl somewhat ostracized because of her weight, and they come to a conclusion: no matter how hard they've tried, love has not been a part of their lives.

One day, in one of those public toilets the British seem so keen on visiting, he runs into John, another student from his high school. Except that John is not just another student, he happens to be the Golden Boy, not only is he the best athlete and the most handsome boy, he is also rich and very popular. Of course, John neutralizes possible misunderstandings by explaining that he just happened to be there. When Steven, disappointed and embarrassed, decides to depart, John asks him if his parents are home.

In Steven's home, the game commences, or rather, what was already there comes to the surface. When John makes fun of a teddy bear in Steven's room, that soon leads into physical contact as Steven tries to retrieve the object from John's hands. Then, after being on top of each other, breathing hard and unmistakably excited, John proceeds to unbutton Steve's trousers and when they're about to kiss things get interrupted.

The interruption is a symptom of society's intervention, which in this case does not take the form of an angry mob but rather the moral constraints that are deeply rooted in John's mind. If the gaze of the other defines us completely, then what must we do to be successfully inserted in society? For traditional psychoanalysis homosexuality has been a perversion, a mental illness, a condition that could be remedied, but it has also been the abject, id est, the vilest, the very lowest of the human condition. 

my drawing / mi dibujo 

I would like to believe that much time has passed since then, but it's undeniable that some people, perhaps more than I would care to admit, continue to think as if they had been raised in the Victorian age.

On the contrary, Steven has come to terms with his sexuality since he was 11. He has no doubts, no regrets. He feels only angry at the prejudiced people surrounding him at home, at school and everywhere in between. As his relationship with John progresses, they thrive to keep the secrecy, but the clandestine rendezvous and the constant hiding takes a toll on Steven. As John explains to him, they can do anything they want as long as no one else knows about it.

Although at first this is hardly a limitation, soon the nature of the relationship will demand openness. Steven wants John to feel proud of them, of their relationship, he demands John to acknowledge him in school, not only outside. How long can they go keeping the secret? And is it really impossible to declare their love to everyone else? Be realistic, sometimes the impossible simply cannot be demanded for the very reason that it shouldn't have been deemed impossible in the first place.

As the impossibility of accepting homosexuality is firmly placed in John's head, things will not be easy. But when other school kids start making enquiries and deductions, the entire relationship could come apart. Does this couple have what it takes to surmount seemingly unconquerable obstacles or was this a doomed affair from the very beginning? 
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Marquesa Agatha Ruiz de la Prada

Esta ha sido, sin duda, una noche atípica. ¿Por qué? Porque se inauguraron dos muestras imperdibles. Por un lado, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada engalanó la sala del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo con sus vestidos ultra-contemporáneos. 

Como le comenté a Érika Beleván mientras me entrevistaba para Polizontes, hace falta ser una persona extraordinaria (es decir, fuera de lo ordinario) y sumamente audaz para usar la ropa que usa Agatha Ruiz de la Prada; quizá su título nobiliario le otorga automáticamente una osadía de la que pocos podrían presumir, pero lo cierto es que sus diseños de ropa son todo menos ordinarios. 

Y eso lo pude comprobar en la atiborrada sala del MAC, en la que cientos de individuos se fotografiaban con los atuendos de Ruiz dela Prada.

No obstante, la enorme afluencia de público me hizo sentir claustrofóbico, así que luego de media hora decidí retirarme a la inauguración de “Kinésica” de Daniela Carvalho en Dédalo, allí saludé a Pedro Casusol, a María Elena Fernández, y me quedé charlando un largo rato con Mónica Cuba y con Isabelle Decencière. 

Con dibujos asombrosos, Carvalho transmite una intensidad y una expresividad que pocos artistas son capaces de alcanzar. Sus vívidos retratos de rostros incompletos nos llenan de asombro, y la delicadeza de su trazo nos reconcilia con el arte en mayúsculas. Sin lugar a dudas, se trata de una de las mejores muestras que he visto en el transcurso del 2014.

Daniela Carvalho

En el transcurso de la noche me encontré con Luis Piccini, Pablo Alayza, Eduardo y Gabriel Lores, etc. Quizás me extralimité en la cantidad de copas de espumante que bebí, pero lo cierto es que me divertí como no me divertía en meses. ¡Salud!