CENSORED

The riot shield is an object constructed with the pretence of being invisible, a transparent polycarbonate that does not want to be seen while at the same time allowing its bearer to observe and watch through it, a device that appears to be merely defensive when in reality it is one of immediate response and forceful control. Avelino Sala began to use these shields as a support for his pictorial interventions with the series “Give me Shelter” in 2016, whose title already anticipates a friction between opposing meanings, between the coercive power of the shield and the concept of refuge. In it he already makes clear his desire to make visible and modify the semantics of these intimidating elements thanks to the paint thrown on them with the vehemence of the opponent, the insurgent, the rebel, the demonstrator, the hooded person, while entering into direct opposition with the emblems of power, with the logos, flags or acronyms that are printed on their surface. The shields are put in evidence by an artistic action that is as poetic as it is violent and that delves into an investigation, already classic in political art, that refers to that ambiguous contradiction between protection and vigilance, between trust and coercion, that occurs between the security forces of any state and its own citizens. A plastic and conceptual intervention that discovers that, behind the apparent function of these shields, the letters that give shape to censorship are hidden.