Happiness without Fetishes

The key idea: “happiness” is not a monolithic psychological state but a constellation of co-equal domains whose balance enables full and just lives. To reduce well-being to income, utility, or demand reveals more a methodological bias than a humanist understanding of development. Against this narrowing, the capability–functionings framework (Sen) and the architecture of Gross National Happiness (nine domains) reposition public policy in the arena where value truly takes shape: health, education, time, community, culture, governance, living standards, environment, and psychological well-being. Their strength is not utopian but pragmatic: to guide comparative decisions, eliminate suboptimal options, and maximise real freedoms to be and do what people value.This ecology of ends has a dual valence. Intrinsic: living without violence, learning with meaning, cultivating bonds and safeguarding the biosphere are valuable in themselves. Instrumental: domains mutually reinforce each other (e.g., quality education improves health, civic agency, and productivity; vibrant communities reduce conflict and transaction costs). The programmatic consequence is clear: composite metrics and public deliberation must govern — not “correlates” of self-reported satisfaction, easily manipulated or blind to unequal conversion of resources into capabilities. Success, not utopia, demands “joined-up” policies: values in curricula, school-based mindfulness, infrastructures of care, social time, and environmental custodianship, all assessed by cost-effectiveness and their impact on substantive freedoms. The outcome is not another index replacing judgement, but a framework to civilise the economy, reconciling prosperity with dignity and ecological limits. 

EL DORADO – Socioplastic Sculpture (Madrid, 2013)

EL DORADO is a migratory object: a single golden emergency blanket passed from body to body, sculpted through contact, time, and shared space. Conceived in Madrid in 2013 by Anto Lloveras, this socioplastic gesture emerges at the intersection of affection, material minimalism, and performative encounter, resisting the monumentality typically associated with sculpture by embracing ephemerality and circulation as form (Lloveras, 2013). Each participant receives the same object—not a copy, but the original—which takes shape anew in relation to their posture, mood, presence, and the photograph that documents them. The object remains light (twenty grams), yet charged with the symbolic density of survival, intimacy, and collective imagination. Referencing and reversing the myth of El Dorado, here gold is not found but shared, not hidden but made visible, not extracted but offered—a temporary fold of care. The work features artists such as RafaFans, Maite Cajaraville, Monoperro, Paula Lloveras, María Enríquez, Juan Barte, Vic Snake, Giuseppe Zamora, and Hectruso, among others, each inscribed within the same sculptural loop. As part of HIPERVÍNCULOS, a broader network of relational exhibitions, EL DORADO functions not as an edition but as a living rhetorical device, where sculpture is displaced from the object into the gesture of shared proximity. 

AFFECTION IS FUEL

Lloveras, A. (2013) El Dorado – Escultura Socioplástica

 

EL DORADO es una exploración sobre el peso del vínculo. Elegí un material ligero para abrazar directamente los cuerpos, que la escultura fuera tan ligera que no pareciera escultura sino gesto. El dorado es un concepto, una idea, con la que fantaseaban los conquistadores, aquí se invierte y se localiza en terreno conocido, en la ciudad de origen. Los veinte gramos de material se asocian a cada cuerpo de forma diferente, generando una escultura única para cada artista, que se relaciona directamente con los otros al formar parte de la serie. EL DORADO es una escultura social.

 

TOÑO CAMUÑAS
MARÍA ENRÍQUEZ
RAFAFANS
LUJÁN MARCOS

HECTRUSO

JUAN BARTE

YAN NAZCA

MONOPERRO

JAVIER PÉREZ ARANDA
MARISA CAMINOS
POL PARRHEISA
GIUSEPPE ZAMORA

VIC SNAKE
NICO BAIXAS
BASURAMA
ESTHER REVUELTA

OMAR JEREZ
MAITE CAJARAVILLE
PAULA LLOVEAS
ANDRÉS MONTES

EL DORADO

FORMA TAMBIÉN PARTE DE LA SERIE 

HIPERVÍNCULOS

NUBE DE EXPOSICIONES RELACIONALES

HIPERVÍNCULOS – Relational States is an evolving curatorial platform initiated by Anto Lloveras, weaving together ephemeral actions, situated sculptures, and social encounters. Each work functions as a node in a living network of proximity, affection, and conceptual drift, where art emerges not as object but as relational state.