Art Madrid'23 – THE DIVERSITY OF MARCEL BROODTHAERS

Photo of the exhibition

 

 

Marcel Broodthaers (1924- 1976), a Belgian conceptual artist who based his work on research and new proposals, began his artistic career immersed in the world of literature and cinema, working as a journalist. At age 40 his vision changed and he dedicated his life to the creation of new plastic proposals.

 

Influenced by the surrealism and the experience of filmmaker that was acquiring throughout the years, Broodthaers, continued with its walk by the world of the art with found objects creating collages. Already in the final stretch of his career, he opted for large format works that longed for a space larger than the rooms of a museum.

 

 

Marcel Broodthaers installation

 

 

This retrospective analyzes the entire career of the artist with international colors. The diversity of trends is reflected in this sample of more than 300 pieces and the publication of an extensive catalog that can be found in Spanish and English. The curators Jean-François Chevrier, Thierry de Duve and Benjamin H. Buchloh, have colaborated in the editing of texts.

 

The curious thing about this exhibition is that not only has the MoMA contributed to the creation of this exhibition, such as the Tate Gallery in London, the National Gallery in Washington, the National Gallery of Scotland, the MACBA in Barcelona, ??or the Georges Center Pompidou of Paris, have left their pieces to carry out this great exhibition.

 

Marcel Broodthaers. No title. Triptych. Egg shells on three painted canvases. Image courtesy of Maria Gilissen Archives of Marcel Broodthaers

 

 

And not only the people who go to Madrid can enjoy it, was previously in New York in MoMa and in 2017 will end in The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (Germany), but you are still in time to visit it until September in the Sabatini Building . The curious thing about the experience is that we are facing an exhibition within another exhibition, as it addresses different disciplines and totally different manifestations.

 

 

Decorated. An achievement of Marcel Broodthaers (1975)

 

Broodthaers, reinvented himself as he did with the language of his works. He gave the objects a new meaning adapting them to the space where they cohabit between them. Many of the elements used by the artist are organic, giving special importance to eggshells or mussels (foods famous in the Belgian diet). This exhibition does not leave indifferent to the most curious.

 

 

 

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.