Adrian Melis Cuba / Spain, b. 1985
The best effort, 2013
Office desk, telephone, speakers and documents.
Edition of 1 plus 1 AP
Four different job ads are published in a Spanish newspaper and on multiple online job-seeking platforms. Each time a job-seeker responds to one of the four ads their call is...
Four different job ads are published in a Spanish newspaper and on multiple online job-seeking platforms. Each time a job-seeker responds to one of the four ads their call is redirected to a telephone installed in the exhibition space. Once a call is received an automated message picks up and plays a pre-recorded speech of one Spain’s four former prime ministers: Felipe González, José María Aznar, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero or Mariano Rajoy. Each speech has an optimistic tone, promising economic growth, job creation, and the Spanish economy’s progress. The call is never picked up. Meanwhile, prime ministers continue making promises. The harsh reality of high unemployment and desperation is met with optimistic scenarios of prosperity, yet these two contrasting narratives hardly meet beyond the exhibition space’s confines.