The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and TBA21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art) have just opened the exhibition "More than humans" that will be open to the public until December 1st.

This exhibition brings together the work of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tomás Saraceno, under the curating of Stefanie Hessler, in the third project of collaboration between both institutions so far. With these cooperation proposals, the Thyssen Museum expands its connection with contemporary art and explores ways to generate a dialogue between both collections.

Tomás Saraceno, “How to catch the universe in a spider web?”, 2018

Hessler has always been interested in interdisciplinary creative processes and the desire to share the work of artists and researchers who feed on different sources. This has led her to manage projects where art coexists with other disciplines to enrich a shared message that allows addressing issues from different perspectives. In this exhibition, the viewer is invited to ask questions about topics related to technology, artificial intelligence or the power of the unknown. The coexistence of the work of these two artists, apparently so disparate, articulates through the idea of vibration: the one that causes the sound or movement of objects in space, and the one that perceives a receiver, as a passive listener or as a being connected to a sensor network.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, “Opera (QM.15)”, 2016. Video-intallation. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection. Photo: Andrea Rossetti

The strange link that originates between these works requires an interpretive effort to understand the subtlety of the approach, but everything makes sense in this space inhabited by works of art and waiting to receive visitors to unravel those mysteries.

The recent work of Tomás Saraceno has focused on investigating the development of spiders, which has led him to collaborate with geologists and entomologists to examine the behaviour of these arthropods and study their architectures. In the exhibition, one of his latest work "How to catch the universe in a spider web?", a large installation that mimics the networks that weave arachnids, will be present. With these delicate structures, we realise the subtlety of the movement of the air, of the soft tensions that occur with each vibration.

Tomás Saraceno, “Hybrid semi-social solitary Instrument HD 74874” built by: a triplet of Cyrtophora citricola - four weeks and a solo Agelena labyrinthica - one week, 2019

For his part, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster enters the scene with a piece from his latest project, in which he recovers famous characters thanks to the support of technology. In “Opera (QM.15)”, the artist himself plays the role of the soprano María Callas thanks to a holographic illusion. Synchronising his movements with the sound, when reproducing some of the most famous arias that the singer interpreted, he creates a spooky effect that makes its way between the rooms of the museum. Here, the vibrations of the voice will be those that move the threads of the cobwebs, revealing the relationship between these works.

ABIERTO INFINITO. LO QUE EL CUERPO RECUERDA. CICLO DE PERFORMANCE X ART MADRID'26

Art Madrid, committed to creating a discursive platform for artists working within the field of performance and action art, presents Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda, a proposal inspired by Erving Goffman’s ideas in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Amorrortu Editores, Buenos Aires, 1997).

The project unfolds within a theoretical framework that directly engages with these premises, conceiving social interaction as a stage of carefully modulated performances designed to influence others’ perceptions. Goffman argues that individuals deploy both verbal and involuntary expressions to guide the interpretation of their behavior, sustaining roles and façades that define the situation for those who observe.

The body — the first territory of all representation — precedes both word and learned gesture. Human experience, conscious and unconscious alike, is inscribed within it. Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda departs from this premise: representation inhabits existence itself, and life, understood as a succession of representations, transforms the body into a space of constant negotiation over who we are. In this passage, boundaries blur; the individual opens toward the collective, and the ephemeral acquires symbolic dimension. By inhabiting this interstice, performance simultaneously reveals the fragility of identity and the strength that emerges from encounter with others.

PERFORMANCE: OSCURECER UN PAPEL. BY ROCÍO VALDIVIESO

March 5 | 7:00 PM. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.

Nocturnality. Installation. Rocío Valdivieso..

Oscurecer un papel forms part of a series of actions in which the artist engages in reading through repetition, memorization, and a measured degree of improvisation. Within this framework, a non-linear mode of reading emerges from a written text that is transformed when spoken aloud, assuming a different form in the act of articulation. The texts stem from an ongoing investigation into materiality, space, the relationships between body and matter, writing, the sculptural, and a sustained interest in the exploration of voice and orality.

The material from which Oscurecer un papel is constructed consists of a collection of purchase receipts the artist has been accumulating over time. The printed text they contain, together with the action of bringing them into proximity with a heat source—thereby activating the thermal paper on which they are produced—generates meanings that revolve around the notions of consumption and wear.

Rocío Valdivieso. Latent Aura. Performance documentation.

ABOUT ROCÍO VALDIVIESO

Rocío Valdivieso is an artist, researcher, and cultural manager. She is currently a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. She holds an MA in Research in Artistic Practices from the University of Castilla–La Mancha (UCLM) and a BA in Fine Arts from the National University of Tucumán, Argentina. She was a Fundación Carolina fellow from 2022 to 2023. She currently co-directs Errática. Laboratory of Processes and Critique in Madrid, alongside Romina Casile.

She was part of the PEEPA 2023 Program at the Centro de Residencias Artísticas, Matadero Madrid. She completed the 2021/22 Artists Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, and in 2020 participated in the Intensive Curatorial Program of Proyecto PAC at Galería Gachi Prieto, Buenos Aires. She received the Visual Arts Promotion Award at the 4th Visual Arts Week of the Ente Cultural de Tucumán. She was awarded an AUGM scholarship for an exchange residency at UNESP, São Paulo, Brazil. She also participated in the International Residency Program La Ira de Dios and in the Acéfala Galería Residency for Argentine artists.