Art Madrid'23 – THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF SPAIN DESERVES A TRIBUTE

 

 

 

Set up in 1867 by Isabel II, the institution followed the trend, shared by the rest of European countries, of founding museums devoted to showing the most representative treasures of the cultural and artistic richness of the country. It happened, besides, that archaeology was a study discipline in vogue by then, therefore this museum perfectly fitted with the idea of putting together the knowledge and wisdom in develop at that time around an exhibition space that clearly served to their goals of academic and enlightened dissemination.

 

 

 

Tombstone of Sancho III of Navarra, Museum of Leon.

 

 

 

When it was first open, the headquarters of the museum was located in the Casino de la Reina, in a nineteenth-century environment where a reduced collection of pieces were exhibited, from the prehistory to the Middle and Modern Ages, and with a wide selection of numismatic and ethnography. Later, the museum moved to its current headquarters, the Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos in 1895. Since then, the collection only moved during the Civil War, when it was disassembled and stored to protect its integrity.

 

 

 

Treasure of the Neápolis de Ampurias, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.

 

 

 

The museum remained closed from 2008 to 2013 to make a whole reform of the building, with a change in the structure, the display and the creation of new spaces that make more accessible to the public the visits in the showrooms and lighten the volume of pieces on show. After it re-opening in 2014, its name was also modernised, now called with the acronym MAN.

 

 

 

Chest of Hisham II, Treasure-museum of the Cathedral of Girona.

 

 

 

For this commemorative exhibition 150 pieces were put together, one for each year, come from 70 different institutions spread around the Spanish territory. Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero, the curator of the showing, is a full professor of Prehistory at the Complutense University of Madrid. This exhibition offers a tour throughout the evolution of the archaeological science in our country and its connection to museology, since, 150 years ago, not only the MAN was founded, but also the Spanish archaeological museums net, that participates also in the celebration.

 

 

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.