Art Madrid'23 – Nada temas, dice ella. Exhibition V centenary of Santa Teresa

 

 

 

The National Sculpture Museum, on the occasion of the V Centenary of the birth of Teresa of Jesus, first opened together three Colegio de San Gregorio, Villena Palace and the Casa del Sol -the headquarters - to host this tribute to Santa and women whose spirituality and mysticism has influenced many artists of all disciplines.

 

 

 

 

"Fear not, she says" can be seen in this privileged position of Valladolid until February 28, 2016 and includes the participation of 21 contemporary artists selected by curator Rosa Martinez, director and curator of international biennials such as Venice or Istanbul and now in charge of this exhibition, among which are: Marina Abramovic, Anila Quayyum Agha, José Ramón Ais, Pilar Albarracín, Francis Alÿs, Miquel Barceló, Dora Garcia, Cai Guo-Qiang, Anish Kapoor, Waqas Khan, Kimsooja Cristina Lucas, Bruce Nauman, Nikos Navridis, Eglé Rakauskaité, Soledad Sevilla, Josefa Tolrá, Eulalia Valldosera and Bill Viola. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of them have created specific works for this exhibition and others have mixed their works with unique pieces from the historical collection of the Museum, being an eclectic displays of ceramics, drawing, video, performance, installations and interventions in public space.

 

 

 

 

 

"The exhibition it is not intended as a narrative or descriptive exercise on the life of Teresa of Avila, but claim her status and her word as a woman. The selected works are connected with her audacity, boldness and tenacity to realize that the most important mission of every being is to find the purpose of life itself. And that purpose is precisely the force that drives artists to shape their visions, again and again, testing, destroying and restarting. The conscious and continued cultivation of their own gifts make the artists undertake ways to try to reach the ecstasy of true creation [...] The artists and works in this exhibition demonstrate their multiple ways of approaching the mystery of existence, as indicated by the subtitle of the exhibition: "When art reveals mystical truths". Mysticism is a difficult way of approaching reality and it is understood as the highest, the truest, the mystery of communion between self and the whole. "
Rosa Martinez. Fear not, she says (text from the book published on the occasion of the exhibition)

 

 

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.