Cronica Valenciana (Part 2) by Maurico Saenz
I have found a jewel in the city I'm living in. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and therefore makes it a city with many things to be discovered and enjoyed; it's a place where it's a real pleasure walking around its streets, parks, plazas, churches, medieval buildings, and on top of all going to its more than 40 art venues that hold first-class exhibits and where there are at least 3 openings a week with incredible artwork. Just to give an example, this week there will be two openings in the "ayuntamiento" (local government building); one group show of contemporary art by creators from the Comunidad Valenciana (state of Valencia) inside the palace, and one by Auguste Rodin outside in the plaza del ayuntamiento. This is a paradise for me: going to varied exhibits on a weekly basis that aside from appreciating the artwork itself, I learn so much by admiring from classical to contemporary art. I wouldn't have had the chance to live this dream overthere, even by attending every single show that opened in both Brownsville and Matamoros, and traveling to Houston and Monterrey every now and then and going to the Museum District downtown or MARCO and other galleries in the Mexican city.
The first art venue I attended in Valencia was the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, the equivalent to a city's contemporary art museum, and its current exhibit "CONFINES." This show talked about the concept of borders, frontiers, limits, and everything around this issue represented in the most varied ways by notable artists from Spain and all over the world. The kind of pieces I saw made me aware of how broad the concept of limits is and how fascinating is to see how the artists perceive it in the most unusual ways that makes you look at their pieces in awe. I stood perplexed watching videoart about the theme "confines" and was especially a great surprise to see a video from argentinian artist Liliana Porter that I had seen at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City in a show they had devoted to the work of this amazing artist. However, what attracted me the most, among the four vast halls that held work contextualizing "confines" in different ways, was an installation that was especially created for this show in a big hall upstairs by a group of American contemporary artists and curated by Robert Wilson, where they took advantage of every single space going from the walls, to the floor and up the ceiling. It consisted of the most bizarre, erotic, pop-culture images and objects that took you to the extremes and shocked you from the moment you stepped into this hall, and tried to you experience all kinds of feelings. The link for the video of the installation "Visiones del Confín" appears below.
The artistic scene in Valencia is revitalizing for me; it keeps me wondering about the extraordinary things to come and has my eyes wide open. The Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia in the next crónica. Bon dia.
Link to the museum's webpage: http://www.ivam.es/
I have found a jewel in the city I'm living in. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and therefore makes it a city with many things to be discovered and enjoyed; it's a place where it's a real pleasure walking around its streets, parks, plazas, churches, medieval buildings, and on top of all going to its more than 40 art venues that hold first-class exhibits and where there are at least 3 openings a week with incredible artwork. Just to give an example, this week there will be two openings in the "ayuntamiento" (local government building); one group show of contemporary art by creators from the Comunidad Valenciana (state of Valencia) inside the palace, and one by Auguste Rodin outside in the plaza del ayuntamiento. This is a paradise for me: going to varied exhibits on a weekly basis that aside from appreciating the artwork itself, I learn so much by admiring from classical to contemporary art. I wouldn't have had the chance to live this dream overthere, even by attending every single show that opened in both Brownsville and Matamoros, and traveling to Houston and Monterrey every now and then and going to the Museum District downtown or MARCO and other galleries in the Mexican city.
The first art venue I attended in Valencia was the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, the equivalent to a city's contemporary art museum, and its current exhibit "CONFINES." This show talked about the concept of borders, frontiers, limits, and everything around this issue represented in the most varied ways by notable artists from Spain and all over the world. The kind of pieces I saw made me aware of how broad the concept of limits is and how fascinating is to see how the artists perceive it in the most unusual ways that makes you look at their pieces in awe. I stood perplexed watching videoart about the theme "confines" and was especially a great surprise to see a video from argentinian artist Liliana Porter that I had seen at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City in a show they had devoted to the work of this amazing artist. However, what attracted me the most, among the four vast halls that held work contextualizing "confines" in different ways, was an installation that was especially created for this show in a big hall upstairs by a group of American contemporary artists and curated by Robert Wilson, where they took advantage of every single space going from the walls, to the floor and up the ceiling. It consisted of the most bizarre, erotic, pop-culture images and objects that took you to the extremes and shocked you from the moment you stepped into this hall, and tried to you experience all kinds of feelings. The link for the video of the installation "Visiones del Confín" appears below.
The artistic scene in Valencia is revitalizing for me; it keeps me wondering about the extraordinary things to come and has my eyes wide open. The Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia in the next crónica. Bon dia.
Link to the museum's webpage: http://www.ivam.es/
Link to an article about the exhibit: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/05/28/valencia/1243538650.html
Link to the video of the installation "Visiones del Confín": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i01FbIUZGp4
No comments:
Post a Comment