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Last posts

Almodóvar’s Mapplethorpe.

Mónica Boixeda Madrilenian, Only-Be

One of the main attractions at Festival Off PHotoEspaña 2011 which takes place in Madrid this July is the selection of 31 photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe chosen by Pedro Almodóvar for Galería Elvira González (http://www.galeriaelviragonzalez.com/). The collection spans 13 years, starting from 1976 up until 1989 when the great American photographer died of AIDS. It is hard to think of a person better-suited to this particular job than Almodóvar. Basing his choice on a pre-selection already made by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Almodóvar has provided his personal retrospective of the work of one of the most suggestive, interesting, iconic and influential photographers of the twentieth century. Like Mapplethorpe, Almodóvar’s work is characterized by a mix of formal and stylistic classicism, clean and rigorous aestheticism and a willingness to deal with themes which are on the borderlines of what is socially acceptable. Of course, it is impossible to imagine the work of either without the inspiration of Warhol and the world he created in The Factory: that vibrant lighthouse of creativity, halfway between Camelot and the Cour des Miracles, which opened its doors to a memorable group of artists, drug-takers, transvestites and musicians who blurred the lines between the sexes, high culture and low culture, and art and modern life. Mapplethorpe and his inseparable friend and ally Patti Smith, both hungry for art and catharsis, lived during the death throes of the 60s, prowling around Max’s Kansas City rock club each night, rubbing shoulders with Warhol and his entourage. Almodóvar could be said to have continued the legacy of Warhol during the 70s and 80s – the underground years of... read more

Douglas Gordon in Paris

Mónica Boixeda Only-Be, Parisian

The Rodin Museum in Paris will exhibit the interesting Douglas Gordon’s work Predictable incident in Unfamiliar Surroundings until the 4th of September. The work was made in 1995 and it analyzes the influence of the media on people’s behavior. It has been considered as a key element to understand Gordon’s aesthetic proposal. Douglas Gordon is considered one of the more prominent contemporary creators of conceptual art. Before turning 30 years old, he had already attracted tremendous critical attention with his visual works pervaded with groundbreaking ideas about the domination of media on our society. For Gordon, we all have behaviors created by the influence of the media on our society. A few months after we are born, we are sitting in front of a computer. Then we grow up and the computer captures our attention with thousands of images. All of that has generated a society and a civilization dominated by images. This aspect, among others, is what Gordon is trying to make us understand in his installations, where he deconstructs the well-known TV or movie and he subverts and alters them, surprising the spectators and changing those preconceived images in their imaginary. This is the case of Predictable incident in Unfamiliar Surroundings, in which he took a series of sexual images of Captain Kirk and some actresses starring in the famous American television series Star Trek. Gordon projects those images from a device installed on several piled-up Budweiser beer cans. This muted work is divided in five images in slides with different projection times. The segmentation of images and the series that created the imaginary of the American... read more

Cortázar at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona

Mónica Boixeda Barcelonian, Only-Be

“Verba volant, scripta Manent,” said the Latins: Words fly but the writing remains on time. Among the incredible proliferation of texts published today, which in the most of the cases only remain few weeks in bookstores, there are few writers who manage to approve the test of time. Today, apparently, even the written words fly. One of the writers who certainly knew how to remain in time is Julio Cortazar, whose literary work (but also philosophical) is still read, discovered and loved. His novel “Rayuela” (Hopscotch), published in 1963, took long time to achieve the success it deserved in Europe, but is now considered one of the best literary works of the century. In addition, Julio Cortazar is known for “62 Modelo para armar” (62 Model Kit), “Libro de Manuel” (Manuel´s book) and an endless series of stories that often achieved perfection of the style. On the 27th of July, the media section of Caixa Forum will show an audiovisual interpretation of some stories of this great writer, in which literature is renewed with dances, acting and live music. The four artists who created this piece of live narrative are: Alba G. Corral, Kowalski, Rafaël and Soni Riot, with music by Escort Service. Alba G. Corral (Madrid, 1977) develops and uses visual programming code to create visual tools – live – abstract digital landscape. Co-organizer of the Femelek festival also participated in the Sonar Festival, Primavera Sound and LEV. Kowalski is a young DJ and producer who lives and works in Berlin and together with Soni Riot and Rafel, create digital video animation, that expose an accurate criticism of... read more