Art Madrid'23 – Masquelibros V Artist Book Fair

 

 

Is it an object? Is it a book? Is it a visual poem? Yes! and not! because it is all that and more, is the artist's book, a discipline strongly influenced by surrealism, collage-boxes, found objects of the Fluxus and conceptual art, and deeply rooted in the publishing world. The artist's book has become a hotspot in the landscape of contemporary creation and MASQUELIBROS has become the meeting point for artists, critics, fans and collectors of this genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Asela Perez Becerril, director of the gallery Espacio Valverde and member of the MASQUELIBROS jury: "An artist's book is an infinite within another infinite, I like the metaphor of the uncertainty involved in creating something within the created. I value the seed from which the idea and manufacturing develops because, do not forget, a book mainly must be touched and seen".

 

 

 

 

MASQUELIBROS celebrates its 5th edition from 20 to 22 May in public library Eugenio Trias, at El Retiro park, with about 80 exhibitors and a full agenda of activities to bring the artist's book to all public and demonstrate the contemporary richness and versatility of this discipline. This year they have chosen Ana Vazquez-Anamusma (¡yes! our educator in children's workshops #ArtMadrid!) as Emerging Artist. She will present a selection of his work and will present two new pieces: "I am text" and "sell, exchange, Seeking "a participatory piece that will be setting the days before the show via Twitter and RRSS.

 

 

 

 

In addition, MASQUELIBROS shows the magnificent piece 'La Perfecta Casada', an installation of 19 meters long by Elena del Rivero (Valencia, 1952), currently one of the essential voices of national and international contemporary art and who has a particular relationship with the artist's book.

 

 

The fair is completed with a great program of parallel activities, conferences in collaboration with the Reina Sofia Museum, roundtables, workshops and master classes on editing and collage (thanks to the collaboration of miluca Sanz and the Madrid Association of Collage) and a selection of site-specific installations curated by Susana Blas, also part of the Biennial Miradas de Mujeres with a reinterpretation of feminism. Among the publishers present this year in MASQUELIBROS are NOCAPAPER, DUCKOUTMAGAZINE, CURATOR, BlankPaper, Libros del Zorro Rojo, Hilatina Editorial, Sopa Americana, Ed. Somrisas, Ediciones Deliciosas / Limited Edition ... but there will be also personal projects as Metafictions, by David Trullo .

 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.