Art Madrid'23 – Art documentaries for this summer

 

 

‘The salt of the earth’, Win Wenders

 

 

 

We will start with two documentaries about photography. On the one hand, ‘The salt of the earth’, by Win Wenders, filmmaker, playwright, actor, photographer and director of other documentaries such as the one about Pina Bausch. `The salt of the earth’, 2004, approaches Sebastião Salgado´s life and work, and his humanistic photography to reflect the poverty, violence or environmental problems. On the other hand, we will mention ‘Finding Vivian Maier’, 2013, a documentary directed by Charlie Siskel and John Maloof, that reveals the self-taught photographer´s biography and how her legacy was discovered.

 

 

 

“Finding Vivian Maier”, Charlie Siskel and John Maloof

 

 

 

We travel from photography to urban art, highlighting ‘Writers: 20 ans de Graffiti à Paris’, a documentary from 2004, directed by Marc-Aurèle, essential to understand the world of graffiti. And the older ‘Style wars’, from 1983, directed by Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver, reveals us the graffiti linked to Hip-Hop and artistic urban practises that emerged in the heart of New York.

 

 

 

 “Style Wars”, Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver

 

 


A documentary that relates us to functional diversity and its connection with art is ‘What's under your hat?’ (2006), by Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel. It describes, through her twin sister, the life and work of the north american sculptor with Down's syndrome and deafness Judith Scott, and about how the artistic practise strengthened her communicative abilities.

 

 

 

‘What's under your hat?’, Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel

 

 

 

'La Belle Noiseuse’ (1991), by Jacques Rivette, reflects through the relationship between a painter and her model, about reality and its representation, about creative passion and its frustrations. It was inspired by the Balzac´s novel ‘The Unknown Masterpiece’ and obtained the ‘Grand Jury Prize’ in Cannes Festival.

 

 

 

'La Belle Noiseuse’, by Jacques Rivette

 

 

 

Having passed through photography, urban art, sculpture and painting, we reach the Land Art, with ‘Rivers and Tides’ (2001), a beautiful documentary in which the artist Andy Goldsworthy submerges himself into nature to create with her his poetic and ephemeral sculptures.

 

 

 

‘Rivers and Tides’, Thomas Riedelsheimer

 

 

 

We will finally recommend a classic for those that have not seen it yet. It is ‘The Sun of the Quince’ (1992), by Víctor Erice, in which the renowned hyperrealistic artist Antonio López tell us his ideas about artistic creation in general and his particular creative process, through the elaboration of a quince´s painting.

 

 

 

‘The Sun of the Quince’, de Víctor Erice

 

 

 

This brief selection goes through several artistic disciplines, which would allows us to choose the one we prefer in order to learn and enjoy.

 

 

 

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.