Fear of otherness, but also of oneself. Situations of psychosis, panic and anguish repeated day after day. Wars of mass destruction and terrorist massacres, yet also mental imbalance and split personalities. We live immersed in a geography of fear' that distorts the terms of human relations and exchange. This definition, conceived by sociologist Mike Davis, is the basis for Total fear, an exhibition that explores in ”la Caixa” Foundation's Sala Montcada the mechanisms and ambivalence of fear in its individual and collective forms. Under the title The dream of reason, artist Cuco Suárez (Pola de Laviana, Asturias, 1961) presents a claustrophobic installation (symbolizing the space of oneself) that analyses the psychotic and endogenous aspects of individual panic through interviews with psychiatrists, patients and pharmacists, continuously projected inside a space lined with drawings of striations taken from Ridgest Riley's painting. In parallel, the Xhafabdessemed group, made up of artists Sislej Xhafa (Peja, Kosovo, 1970) and Adel Abdessemed (Constantine, Algeria, 1971), present The second total fear, an installation that engages visitors in reflection on the fears that grip all of society using a symbolic, conceptual curtain of objects hung from the ceiling, evocations of contemporary fears: ex-votos, crosses, mines and kefias that symbolize the three monotheistic religions and that appear as metaphors for aggressiveness and terror toward otherness.The exhibition Total fear, curated by Teresa Macrí, can be visited at ”la Caixa” Foundation's Sala Montcada (Montcada, 14), from 19 May to 25 July 2004.Economic instability, social misdirection and the transformation of cultural values outline a horizon of collective antagonisms and dislocation of the self. This paradigm of fear not only alters the confrontation with the other, but also dismantles relationships in the private sphere. Total fear is articulated around two reflections that integrate the subjective (psychosis) and collective (political) parameters instilled around the feeling of fear, increasingly rooted in the new globalized society. The exhibit invites visitors to reflect on the ambivalence of both sides of fear: collective and individual. To do so, ”la Caixa” Foundation's Sala Montcada is divided in two spaces defined by the installations The dream of reason and The second total fear. In the first, Cuco Suárez explores the mechanisms of individual panic, while the Xhafabdessemed group analyses the collective facets of disturbance through the second installation. TERESA MACRÍ (1960, Catanzaro, lives and works in Rome)Critic and independent curator. Among others, she has curated the following exhibits: Carlos Garaicoa (Rome, 2003), Zineb Sedira (Rome, 2003), publication of Fuori Uso (Pescara 2002 and 2003), Mexico Attacks! (Lucca, 2002), Matilde Marín (Buenos Aires, 2002), Sincretismi (Rome, 2001), Zwelethu Methetwa (Rome, 2000), Young Artists of the Mediterranean Biennial (Rome, 1999), Atlantic Festival (Lisbon, 1998). She has published the books Postculture (Meltemi, 2002), Cinemacchine del desiderio (Costa & Nolan, 1998), Metamorfosi do sentir (Assirio & Alvim, 1998) and Il Corpo Postorganico (Costa & Nolan, 1996). She is a contemporary art history lecturer at La Sapienza University (Rome). She writes for the Il Manifesto newspaper.CUCO SUÁREZ (1961, Pola de Laviana, Asturias, lives and works in Oviedo) Performer and multimedia artist, Suarez's projects have to do with the radical nature of corporal experience portrayed through performance, and with social themes, especially conditions of marginalization and exploration of being in the age of globalization. Individual exhibitions: Ministerio y Evolución (Telefónica Foundation, Madrid, 2002), Pasión por Luis Buñuel (3rd Ciudad de Segovia Performance Festival, 2000), Autodestrucción + Zem (Galería Dasto, Oviedo, 2000), Nine Dragon's Heart (International Art Symposium, Kong-Yu, Korea, 1998). Group Exhibitions: PRONOSTICA (Contemporary Art Museum of Ibiza, 2003) Observatori (Observatory) (Valencia, 2003), Artists Collection at ARCO (Fine Arts Museum of Asturias, 2001). Scholarship: Marcelino Botín Foundation, Santander. SISLEJ XHAFA (1970, Peja, Kosovo, lives and works in New York)A polyhedric artist, Xhafa uses action, installation, video, photography, drawing and sculpture. The world of immigration, present conflicts and dreams are at the center of Xhafa's work. Individual exhibitions: Twice Upon a Time (Rome, 2003), Death Project (New York, 2002), Ali Hamadou (Fondazione Teseco, Pisa, 2002). Collective exhibitions: Tirana Biennial (Tirana, 2003), Fuori Uso (Pescara, 2003), Museum of Contemporary Art of Haifa (Israel, 2003), Hardcore (Palays de Tokyo, Paris, 2003 ), Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, Korea, 2002), Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul, 2001), Manifesta III (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2000). Award: Furla per l'Arte Award (Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, 2000).ADEL ABDESSEMED (Constantine, Algeria, 1971, lives and works in Berlin)Cultural taboos and aspects of post-colonialism in our society form the main strands of his installations, videos, drawings and sculptures. Noteworthy among his individual exhibitions are: Habibi (FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims, 2004; Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, USA; Centre National d'Art et du Paysage, Vassivière, 2002) and ZEN (Projectroom Kunsthalle Bern, 2001). Among his most significant collective exhibits are the 50th Venice Biennial (2003), Plan B: an identity under construction (Denver Museum of Modern Art, 2002), Uniform - Order and Disorder (PS1, New York; Tirana Biennial, Albania; Yokohama Triennial, Yokohama, 2001; Busan Biennial, Korea, Manifiesta 3, 2000).Total fearFrom 19 May to 25 July 2004”la Caixa” Foundation's Sala MontcadaMontcada, 1408003 BarcelonaInformationTel.: 902 22 30 40Hours:Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 am to 3 pm and from 4 pm to 8 pmSundays and holidays, 11 am to 3 pmFree admissionwww.fundacio.lacaixa.es