art

Children of the Fundació Comtal portray works exhibited in the gallery for the “World Selfie Day in Museums”

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Last Wednesday, January 18, 2023 will remain engraved in the memory of the children of the Fundación Comtal, an organization that has been working tirelessly since 1994 to provide opportunities for the future to children, adolescents and young people in vulnerable situations and their families. On this special occasion, on the occasion of “World Selfie Day in Museums”, they had the privilege of visiting Galeria SENDA.

From the moment they set foot in the gallery, the young people were greeted with a warm welcome and a detailed explanation of the current exhibition: “Love Song” by renowned artist Elena Del Rivero. Excited by the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of contemporary art, they listened attentively as the story and meaning behind each work of art on display at SENDA was narrated to them.

After absorbing all the information about the exhibition, came the most exciting moment of the visit. As part of the scheduled activity, each child was invited to choose one of the works on display in the gallery to study it closely. With pencils and paper in hand, they immersed themselves in a world of creativity and expression. With each stroke, they tried to capture the essence and beauty of the surrounding artwork. From the vibrant colors to the smallest details, each child let their imagination run wild as they brought their own interpretation of the works to life.

Amidst laughter and murmurs of excitement, the young people shared their creations with each other, enthusiastically describing every detail they had captured in their drawings. For many of them, this experience was much more than just an artistic exercise; it was a unique opportunity to express their emotions and unleash their creativity.

As the visit came to an end, the young people left Galeria SENDA with a sense of satisfaction and pride in what they had accomplished. For them, this experience was not only an opportunity to explore the world of art, but also a reminder that, despite the challenges they face in their daily lives, they have the power to create beauty and meaning around them.

In short, “World Selfie Day at Museums” was not only a celebration of art, but also a reminder of the positive impact art can have on the lives of children, especially those who need it most. Although it may seem like a global, absurd and little-known day, it is thanks to such oddities that art never dies. Moreover, thanks to initiatives such as the one proposed by Galeria SENDA for this celebration, art continues to be a beacon of hope and creativity for future generations. Because, as the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, said: “Without art, life would be a mistake“.

Image of a group of people in an art gallery

Chus Roig, partner and co-founder of the gallery during the explanation with the Fundació Comtal group

Here are some of the most outstanding drawings that the children of the Fundació Comtal created for this initiative, along with their respective original work:

Sculpture of a young woman's face by Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa
Martina (2022)
Wood, 140 x 32 x 44 cm

Metal and glass sculpture
Túlio Pinto
Complicity #29 (2021)
Steel and glass, 140 x 40 x 96 cm
Wooden sculpture of a man with black jacket, white shirt and pink tie
Stephan Balkenhol
Man with pink tie (2022)  
Wood, 120 x 95.5 x 11.7 cm
Dark canvas with large white star in the center and the word "FEAR" in red
Elena Del Rivero
#102 (2020)
Collage with damaged and recovered fragments of acrylic on canvas, oil, thread and canvas plastered on museum board, 29 x 23 cm
Abstract painting of beings with yellow faces
Evru Zush
Girls Of My Life (1988)
Oil on paper, 92 x 184 cm

«Poetry of silence», an exhibition by Jaume Plensa at the Fundación Bancaja in Valencia

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Comprising nearly a hundred works, the exhibition covers Jaume Plensa’s production from 1990 to the present and has as a common thread the influence of literature and literature in his artistic production.

This morning, the Fundación Bancaja presented the exhibition “Jaume Plensa. Poetry of silence“, one of the largest retrospectives to date of one of the most renowned sculptors in international contemporary art. The exhibition reviews the artistic production of Jaume Plensa during four decades with the original influence of literature and letters in his work as a common thread, being the first retrospective to be developed from the prism of this creative universe that has been a constant throughout his career. The presentation was attended by Jaume Plensa; the president of the Fundación Bancaja, Rafael Alcón; and the curator of the exhibition, Javier Molins.

Image of an exhibition of paintings by Jaume Plensa
Installation shot, Poetry of Silence
Image of a sculpture by Jaume Plensa
Installation shot, Poetry of Silence

The exhibition is made up of about a hundred pieces dating from 1990 to the present, based on his sculptural work but also including works on paper. The exhibition tour reveals to the public some unpublished sculptures created by Plensa during the COVID-19 confinement, which are presented for the first time. The pieces presented include the iconic sculpture “Together” (2014), which was exhibited in 2015 at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore during the Venice Biennale and has not been exhibited since.

Image of journalists interviewing a man in front of a sculpture by Jaume Plensa

The artist Jaume Plensa for TV3

Literature has always been a source of inspiration for Jaume Plensa. T.S. Eliot, William Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe or Vicent Andrés Estellés are some of the writers who have accompanied him throughout his life and have served as inspiration for countless works. This literary influence also extends to the letter itself as an element with which he composes his sculptures.

The exhibition shows how Plensa has used letters in many different ways, whether on curtains, gongs or the human body, perhaps his best-known works. This intersection of language with the human body is one of the bases of Plensa‘s work. As the artist explains, “a letter seems nothing, it is something humble, but together with others they form words, and words form texts and texts form thought“.

Image of an exhibition of Jaume Plensa
Image of an exhibition of Jaume Plensa

The sculptor began with the Latin alphabet and gradually incorporated other alphabets, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Cyrillic, Korean, Hindi, etc. For Plensa, each letter has a unique beauty, but all of them together are a sample of the diversity of the world and the coexistence of different cultures.

Image of three men and a woman inside a sculpture by Jaume Plensa
From left to right: Javier Molins, Carlos Durán, Jaume Plensa and Laura Medina

The retrospective includes both large and medium-sized works as well as Plensa‘s more intimate small-format works. Along with the presence of literature as a source of inspiration, the exhibition includes other constant themes in his career such as silence, dreams and desire, music and family.

The exhibition “Jaume Plensa. Poetry of silence” can be visited at the headquarters of the Fundación Bancaja in Valencia (Plaza Tetuán, 23) from November 25, 2022 to March 19, 2023.

All the information here:

https://www.fundacionbancaja.es/exposicion/jaume-plensa-poesia-del-silencio/

Roger Ballen for Loop Fair 2022: “Roger The Rat”

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Roger Ballen, “Roger The Rat” for LOOP Fair Barcelona

15- 17 November 2022

📍Room 304, Almanac Barcelona

We’re happy to announce Roger Ballen as this year’s artist for Loop Fair with his work: “Roger the Rat”, which will be exhibited at #LOOP22 (15-17 Nov) where a selection of contemporary artists’ films and videos will be presented by international galleries in a unique viewing experience in Barcelona.

Roger Ballen created a persona, Roger the Rat. Here, the artist creates and documents an archetypal persona who is a part-human, part-rat creature who lives an isolated life outside of mainstream society. In this film, we follow Roger the Rat, as he moves out of his restrictive hovel to an abandoned graveyard of discarded mannequins taking them to his house to dress and communicate with them.

Initially Roger the Rat was ecstatic with his newfound companions as he could dress them, talk to them and share his feelings. As time passes, he comes increasingly frustrated by their lack of response which leads to his outbursts of violent and irrational behavior. Roger the Rat, gives expression to the corroding effects of loneliness, seclusion, and uncomfortable suffocation in confined spaces afflicted on the human psyche as a consequence of the isolation.

ALL THE INFORMATION HERE

ARTIST BIO

Roger Ballen was born in New York in 1950, son of a photograph editor at Magnum.

Ballen has worked as a geologist and mine consultant before launching his own photographic career, documenting small towns in rural Africa and their isolated inhabitants, spending more than 40 years living there.

It was in the 90s when his style changed, trying the black and white technique and a more ‘documentary fiction’ approach to his work. Ballen has always been intrigued by the idea of a hybrid between photography and drawing, as well as the expansion of his visual language, making him experiment with video works where the human conditions are his main subject matter.

He is considered one of the most influential artists of the 21st century, having published over 25 books internationally and being part of multiple solo and group exhibitions since 1981.

Anthony Goicolea for Loop Festival 2022: “Don’t make a scene”

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Galeria SENDA presents Anthony Goicolea – “Don’t Make a Scene” (2020)
LOOP Festival, 8 – 20 November 2022


Galeria SENDA is pleased to present Anthony Goicolea in this years edition of the LOOP Festival from the 8th of November till the 20th of November.

“Don’t Make a Scene” (2020) is a monologue presented in the form of a silent film. The short unfolds as a book of drawings made during the initial six weeks of the Covid-19 quarantine. Each drawing is done on semi-translucent sheets of mylar film. The portraits are character studies presented as actors from a one-act play.
 
Made during a six-week period of forced isolation, Goicolea casts myself as the emcee in the guise of an early 1900’s cabaret host as an allusion to past and present pandemics.

Stills from the original video


Dressed in period stage drag the emcee enters in a black cloak and beaked mask. During the 17 th-century plague, European physicians wore beaked masks, leather gloves, and long coats in an attempt to fend off disease. The mask is removed to reveal pancake make-up and reddened cheeks that were often used to hide early signs of “Consumption” or the “White Plague”. And the pomaded coifure, rouge, lipstick and stage make up has links to paintings made during the pandemic of 1918 as well as referneces to drag and queer communities affected by the on going AIDS pandemic.
 
The musical accompaniment is a slow unfolding waltz whose beat is in sync with the rhythmic turning of the pages. The slow steady beat marches onward toward isolation, tedium, fear and the final hooded figure of death.

ARTIST BIO
Anthony Goicolea is an American born artist of Cuban origin. Known internationally for his photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptural installations, and films, the artist works across mediums creating a self-referential visual language that explores identity, migration and transition, displacement and alienation, as well as assimilation and group dynamics. Goicolea uses the architecture of the human body and constructed landscapes to create worlds predicated on fantasy but based in reality.

About LOOP Barcelona

LOOP Barcelona is a platform dedicated to the study and promotion of the moving image. Founded in 2003, since its creation it offers a specialized audience a curated selection of video-related contents from challenging perspectives. An international community of artists, curators, gallerists, collectors and institution directors, team up to develop projects, which aim at exploring the capacities of video and film in today’s contemporary art discourses.

Inverso Mundus, by AES+F at Recontemporary, Torino

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During the period of the Artissima fair, Recontemporary presents “Inverso Mundus” by the AES+F collective, a show in collaboration with Galeria SENDA (Barcelona).

Opening: Friday, November 4 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Press Preview: November 2 and 3, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Extraordinary openings Art Week: 5.11 → 10.30am – 9pm / 6.11 → 4pm – 9pm

The work is signed by the AES+F collective, artists who have represented Russia on various occasions and events such as the Venice Biennale and Sao Paulo, and who at this time have openly distanced themselves from the politics of their country. A choice intended to support artistic production regardless of the country of origin.

Inverso Mundus is a critique of the despotic situation we live in today, in the midst of the climate, social and economic crisis, exploitation and gender inequality. The video work, about 40 minutes long, is presented with an ad hoc setting designed by the designer Andrea Isola with the input of the participants in the Exhibition Design workshop organized by Recontemporary in the days immediately prior to the opening.

The work “Inverso Mundus” has as its initial point of reference the carnivalesque engravings of the 16th century in the “upside down world” genre, an early form of populist social criticism that emerged with the arrival of Gutenberg’s printing press. The title of the project mixes old Italian and Latin, from a centuries-old stratification of meanings, combining “Inverso”, the Italian “reverso” and old Italian “poetry”, with the Latin “Mundus”, which means “world”. “.

This work reinterprets contemporaneity through the tradition of printmaking, depicting a contemporary world consumed by a tragicomic apocalypse where social conventions are turned upside down to highlight underlying premises we take for granted:

Metrosexual garbage men bathe the streets with sewage and garbage. An international board of directors is usurped by its impoverished doppelgangers. The poor give alms to the rich. Chimeras come down from the sky to be petted like pets. A pig guts a butcher. Women dressed in cocktail dresses sensually torture men in cages and devices inspired by IKEA furniture in an ironic reversal of the Inquisition. Tweens and octogenarians fight a kickboxing match. Riot police embrace protesters in an orgy on a huge luxurious bed. Men and women carry donkeys on their backs and virus-like radiolaria in Haeckel’s illustrations, peering out and perching on unsuspecting people who are busy taking selfies.

The video’s background music is an amalgamation of Léon Boëllmann’s 1895 Gothique, an original piece by contemporary composer and media artist Dmitry Morozov (also known as VTOL), along with excerpts from Ravel, Liszt, Mozart and Tchaikovsky, with a special emphasis on “Casta Diva” by Norma by Vincenzo Bellini.

AES+F – Inverso Mundus, Stillage #6
AES+F – Inverso Mundus, Stillage #1

Recontemporary message:

“The works are a reference to the current situation of sudden changes and extreme instability, a moment in which more than ever it is necessary to be carried away by the communicative power of art and the power it has to unite and make people reflect, synthesizing universal messages.”

Anna Malagrida presents “The Devil’s Stone” at the Garrotxa Museum

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Natura Viva Project

October 29 – December 11, 2022, Garrotxa Museum

The artist Anna Malagrida presents a video installation that starts from the traces that man has perpetuated in the landscape of volcanic area of ​​La Garrotxa.

“The Devil’s Stone, 2022″ focuses on the popular imagination that is created around these footprints and their perception.

The proposal is part of the Natura Viva project and is curated by Carolina Grau. Ten artists from ten Catalan cities have been invited to explore the local geography and reveal to us, once again, how to feel and learn from our nature.

The objective is to raise awareness and reflect on the evolution of our footprint and its impact on the biosphere. The result of the ten artistic projects can be seen simultaneously in the ten cities during the fall of 2022.

The Natura Viva project is promoted by Transversal, Network of Cultural Activities with the support of Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia.

OPENING HOURS – Free admission


Weekdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Sundays and holidays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mondays closed

All the information here.

Galeria SENDA joins Talking Galleries 2022

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Barcelona Symposium: Talking Galleries’ flagship meeting 

The Barcelona Symposium, at the heart of Talking Galleries’ work, is a two-day conference of debates, cogent conversations, and fruitful networking all around art galleries.

It is a unique opportunity for prominent art world figures to discuss and reflect on various aspects of art gallery management. It attracts a diverse audience, made up of gallerists, collectors, art journalists, curators, artists, and fair directors, who are engaged in the discussion and contribute to the exchange of expertise and relevant knowledge across all sectors of the art business.

Held annually in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA), each edition of the event has brought together over 200 professionals from about 25 countries all around the world.

Click here to check the list of speakers.

Click here to find the full schedule.

Click here to buy tickets.

The Central Library of Cantabria hosts the work of the Italian photographer Massimo Vitali

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Since 1993, the Italian Massimo Vitali stands on a platform several meters high, and with a large camera he photographs beaches, nightclubs, ski resorts, supermarkets, swimming pools and other busy leisure areas.

The work of this contemporary photographer embodies the essence of leisure activity in the summer season.

But there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to this author’s idyllic seascapes. Vitali responded to the political turmoil in Italy in the 1940s, launching his beach series in the mid-1990s as a political commentary on mass tourism and social complacency. While Vitali’s photographs seem to depict the paradisiacal appearance from each place he captures, his work actually focuses on the individuals who appear in the composition and their collective response to society.

Massimo Vitali – Amadores Triptych left (#1990-91)

Using the beach as a platform for social research, Vitali sought to photograph bathers in their most vulnerable state in order to document society in its most authentic state Most of the artist’s work captures tourist destinations in Italy as it retains the idea that taking quality photos does not necessarily require traveling outside of your local community. Some of the famous places immortalized in Vitali’s work include Spargi Cala Corsara Cala Mariolu Porto Miggiano and Cefalù Viareggio however Vitali has since it has expanded beyond the borders of Italy to vacation spots in Brazil, Greece, Turkey and Spain.

Massimo Vitali photographs the latest outdoor furniture | Wallpaper*
Massimo Vitali, by Wallpaper*

Since the start of his iconic beach series, Vitali has continued to explore the natural environment, but instead focused on the impact of human disturbance on nature In contrast to his coastal scenes, Vitali focuses less on the pleasure and leisure of people and, instead, in the complex relationship between humans and their impact on the environment his most recent series entitled Disturbed Coastal Systems (April 2017) reveals an implicit message of the tension built between the man and nature.

Dates

08.09.2022- 02.10.2022

Organizer
Government of Cantabria. General Directorate of Culture and PHotoESPAÑA

Headquarters

Central Library of CantabriaC/ Ruiz de Alda, 19, 39009 Santander

Schedule

Mon-Fri / Mon-Fri: 09:00 – 21:00

Sat-Sun; fest / Sat-Sun; Hol: 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Entrance
Free entry / Admission free

More information about this artist and his work on our website.

Follow us on social media so you don’t miss any news or gallery activity!

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The new doors of Jaume Plensa at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona

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“The letter seems to me a beautiful metaphor of society: a single letter is nothing; but together with others it can form words, concepts; this is the power of community.” – Jaume Plensa

The Gran Teatre del Liceu opened the 2022-2023 season yesterday, Monday, with the new doors, or ‘Constellations’, the work of sculptor Jaume Plensa, highlighting the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the historic Barcelona institution.

The artist Jaume Plensa next to Salvador Alemany, president of the Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu 

The doors (stainless steel, 4 x 4 m) are inspired by two classics of Catalan culture: the architect Antoni Gaudí, and the painter Joan Miró, with his nearby Pla de la Boquería mosaic, in addition to the close relationship with the name of one of his most original series ‘Constel·lacions (1939)’.

“I think this dialogue between the past and the future gives us the key to the present: the contemporary gesture at the heart of society, embracing music with words and voice with writing.” The artist said yesterday at the opening ceremony at Las Ramblas.

Plensa intends to vindicate the diversity of the promenade with letters from nine alphabets engraved on the railings – intermingling Arabic, Latin or Chinese – that will reflect their moving shadows on the floor of the entrance, when the doors reach the light of the lamps of the portal.

During the presentation of the doors, the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, also expressed the importance of this work for the city: “I want to thank all the members of the Board of Trustees who accepted it so quickly, that they see so lucidly that this proposal would be key for the Liceu, but also for the Ramblas, Barcelona and Catalonia.” And she has added that “having art available to everyone makes it possible for citizens to know and value it. I am sure that these doors will awaken the love for art in many pedestrians, and in the spectators who pass through them to enjoy the opera in this important facility.”

For his part, the Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Martí, has emphasized above all the commitment of the Liceu to “link to contemporary artists of the city and to do it in a total and determined way, not just with a small gesture. Today we are opening three doors, but we will also be able to see Macbeth with the stage direction of Jaume Plensa.” Martí has ​​insisted that the doors “improve the artistic environment of the Ramblas” and wanted to thank the artist for his “humble and restrained gesture because Constelaciones are integrated into the landscape and do not become an isolated work of art.”

After the institutional parliaments, the act has continued with the first official opening of the doors while the Coro del Gran Teatre del Liceu performed the Wagnerian piece Freudig begrüß en wir die edle Halle (Tannhäuser, act II) on the Rambla, directed by the director of the Choir, Pablo Assante, and accompanied on piano by David-Huy Nguyen-Phung. A piece from the second act of the Tannhäuser that celebrates the entrance of the guests and that wants to be a symbolic and metaphorical gesture of doors that invite the public to enter and enjoy the universal language that is music.

“The alphabet represents a harmony that celebrates the great diversity of the world,” said Plensa. The president of the fundación del Liceo, Salvador Alemany, has stated that the sculptor’s work is “a gift that gives prestige to the Rambla and the Liceo”.

No es la primera vez que el escultor dispone de una obra cerca de un núcleo cultural de la ciudad condal. Carmela, un rostro de cuatro metros, mitad niña y mitad adolescente, preside la fachada del Palau de la Música. El artista, Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas 2012, ha proyectado sus conocidos rostros en otras capitales como Madrid, (Julia) o New York (El alma del agua).

Plensa will maintain his relationship with the Liceo in the new season as the person in charge of the scenery of the Macbeth of Verdi, que se estrenará el próximo febrero.

Technical and operating elements

As for the technical details, these doors weigh around 500 kilograms each and migrate on a single axis that is embedded at the start of the arch just above the capital; of the pilasters. The convexity of the doors does not exceed the outer plane of the pilasters and means that the minimum passage below the open sheepfold is about 3 m high. One of the characteristics of the structure is that the doors do not open laterally, but have an opening movement from bottom to top. In this way, in addition to physical sculpture, we also seek a set of dialogues with spaces, reflections and optical visions of light and shadow. Thus, all those who walk the ground of the Rambla will be able to walk on this carpet of shadows of the installation itself. The work is integrated without affecting any other past element incorporated prior to the facade of Oriol Mestres from 1874 and recovered in 2019.

Bibliography:

https://www.liceubarcelona.cat/es/el-liceu-inaugura-la-obra-constelaciones-de-plensa

https://elpais.com/espana/catalunya/2022-09-05/el-liceo-inaugura-la-temporada-con-las-nuevas-puertas-de-jaume-plensa.html

https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20220906/8504964/plensa-enriquece-fachada-gran-teatre.html

https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20220905/8504963/abren-cierran-levitan.html

TÚLIO PINTO at the 13th edition of the Bienal do Mercosul

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Anyone passing through Borges de Medeiros Avenue, in the Historic Center of Porto Alegre, should be curious about the bands of orange colors that connect between the buildings.

This is the work “Batimento”, by Túlio Pinto, which is participating in the 13th edition of the Bienal do Mercosul.

In this edition of the Bienal do Mercosul, the artist reflect on collective experiences. With free access, the exhibitions – which focus on the theme Trauma, Dream and Escape – aim to provide immersive essays through the senses and perception of visitors.

The event is signed by the general curator, Marcello Dantas, and the assistant curators Tarsila Riso, Laura Cattani, Munir Klamt and Carollina Lauriano.

It is a project that uses the city as a support to carry out a great pictorial graphic intervention through the use of an industrial material that is the canvas used for the facades of buildings under construction or restoration.

The orange color of the vectors intends to generate a pictorial touch with the blue color of the sky. This is due to the complementary relationship of colors.

Túlio Pinto

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