Interview with Jon Bird: Leon Golub May 2011 Jon Bird, curator of the Leon Golub exhibition, explores the contemporary relevance of the artist's painting from various perspectives. First of all, how it brings historical painting up to date; secondly, how it conceives of the body; and thirdly, what the role of the viewer is. Exhibitions
Interview with Jorge Ribalta, A hard, merciless light. The worker-photography movement, 1926-1939 April 2011 In this interview Jorge Ribalta, the curator of the exhibition A hard, merciless light. The worker-photography movement, 1926-1939, proposes a journey through the documentary practices of the worker movements of the interwar period, emphasizing the appearance of a new notion of photographic modernism, one linked to social movements and the document Exhibitions
La tertulia del café de Pombo. Findings of the restoration March 2011 José Gutiérrez Solana painted La tertulia del café de Pombo in 1920, at the request of his friend Ramón Gómez de la Serna, a writer linked to the avant-garde movement in Spain. The painting captures a singular moment in Spanish intellectual life during the 1920s, between the dark connotations of España Negra and the renewal brought by the Generation of '98. A recent conservation analysis has revealed previously unknown details about the painting, leading to new interpretations. The Collection
Interview with Andreas Huyssen March 2011 Structured around various core ideas, this interview with the author of the book Modernismo después de la postmodernidad (2011) shows the dilemmas arising between a revision of the melancholic and contemplative past, returned in the form of the architectural memorial, and a critical reading from the museum, in which history and memory are confronted. Huyssen discusses the foundations of a new modernism, which has future prospects and projects but lacks a geographical centre and power hierarchies. The Collection Centro de estudios
Roberto Jacoby and Ana Longoni on Desire rises from Collapse March 2011 Roberto Jacoby is an artist who, through his multiple abandonments of art, nourishes the artistic practice of possibility, moments of tension and new agents. His work begins in the realm of Instituto Di Tella and, in a series of radical episodes, becomes Tucumán Arde (1968). Far from ending there, his subsequent career has dealt with networks, memory and its activations (or obliterations) in the archive. Exhibitions
Efrén Álvarez. Económicos March 2011 Económicos, the exhibition by the artist Efrén Álvarez (Barcelona, 1980), outlines a global vision of today's economy as a discipline that caricaturizes itself. Forty drawings and texts by different authors show relationship systems in which the apparent pedagogical intention of the exhibition entails, in practice, looking at what is unproductive, decayed and alienated through work and consumption Exhibitions
Ricardo Piglia, on Roberto Jacoby February 2011 The novelist Ricardo Piglia talks about the work of the Argentine artist Roberto Jacoby, in connection with the exhibition Roberto Jacoby, Desire rises from Collapse (Museo Reina Sofía, 25 February to 30 May, 2011). Jacoby's work, explains Piglia, contributes to the formation of two of today's key ideas: the creation of networks, through what Jacoby calls technologies of friendship, and the notion of immateriality as a fundamental aspect of contemporary society. Exhibitions
Asier Mendizabal January 2011 In much of the work by Asier Mendizabal (Ordizia, 1973) history ceases to be a practice linked to the past and instead reveals the cracks through which it becomes an activity intimately connected to the present. In this interview he comments on some of his work, hermetic and complex, where the resource of narration becomes something that updates both history and its visual forms. The ideas of monument, public sculpture and photomontage are modern archetypes that Mendizabal uses as a possibility of that which is collective. Exhibitions
Sound familiar? Itinerary through the Collection for children and adults July 2012 The educational program Sound familiar?, for children and accompanying adults, consists of an interactive visit through some of the rooms of the Collection. It was designed by Pablo Martín Jones and is also performed by him, along with Raúl Márquez and David Escudero. Sound familiar? This activity is an educational and artistic project that offers a musical interpretation of certain pictorial works of the second and fourth floor of the Museo Reina Sofía Collection, in order to explore sensibilities other than the exclusively visual approach to different works of art. Education
Nacho Criado Collaborating Agents July 2012 Nacho Criado (Mengíbar, Jaén, 1943 – Madrid, 2010) is considered one of the most important figures in the last 40 years of experimental art in Spain. The Palacio de Velázquez, one of the Museum's venues in Parque del Retiro, offers a retrospective of his work, providing insight into the multitude of media, practices and homages present in his art, and also their material realization. The Palacio de Cristal, the other Reina Sofía venue in the park and the second site of the retrospective, reconstructs the 1991 exhibition Piezas de agua y cristal, where cultivated mushrooms exemplify the 'collaborating agents' that give this exhibition its name. Exhibitions
Sharon Hayes and Lynne Cooke. On Habla July 2012 Conversation with Lynne Cooke, the exhibition curator, and the artist Sharon Hayes (Baltimore, Maryland, 1970). Using methodological and conceptual strategies drawn from various spheres of discourse, Hayes' projects explore the relations between history, politics and language, using performances, videos and installations to create a collective imaginary. These processes of documenting a historical event end up conditioning the gaze of the individual, leading to a critical reflection about the frictions generated between the public and the private. Exhibitions
Lynne Cooke on Rosemarie Trockel: a cosmos May 2012 Conversation with Lynne Cooke, the curator of the exhibition devoted to the German artist Rosemarie Trockel. Trockel's work explores different methods and a wide range of materials, thereby eluding classification. Her creations question the legitimizing categories of art, social order and gender identities. Also, in this collection, Trockel gives her attention to lesser known artists, chosen out of the empathy she feels for the frankness and inventiveness with which they look at questions that she too asks herself. Exhibitions
Hans Haacke Castles in the air March 2012 In this video, Walter Grasskamp, art historian and critic, and Hans Haacke himself present the exhibition Castles in the air. Associated with North American conceptual art and a pioneer of what is known as institutional critique, Haacke, through his work, questions museum, political and economic institutions in the context of today's globalized society. Exhibitions
Set up and display. Collection 3. From Revolt to Postmodernity (1962-1982) March 2012 This video looks at Museo Reina Sofía's Collection 3, giving special attention to the set up of the exhibition and to the contributions made by Manuel Borja-Villel, the director of the Museum, Rosario Peiró, the head of the Collections Department, and Jesús Carrillo, the head of Cultural Programs. Learning about the set-up process helps expand visitors' vision and enriches their understanding of this section of the newly arranged Collection, starting with the projection of works in the exhibition rooms where the stories are told, with commentary by the people directly involved. The Collection
Collection 3. From the uprisings to post-modernism (1962-1982) January 2012 In this video, the director of the Museum, Manuel Borja-Villel, the head of the Collections Department, Rosario Peiró and the head of Cultural Programs, Jesús Carrillo, discuss some of the key ideas that make up the new Collection rooms. The visit, which covers the two floors of the Nouvel building, explores a field in continual expansion: practices that no longer follow a single direction but rather come from positions that are not only markedly different, such as tropicalism and feminist art, but also from artistic practices that overlap with one another and others that choose to intervene in repressive contexts such as the dictatorships in Spain and Latin America. The Collection
Museo Reina Sofía. Presentation December 2010 This video introduces an overall vision of Museo Reina Sofía, conceived as an expanded museum with different venues (Sabatini Building, Nouvel Building, Palacio de Cristal and Palacio de Velázquez), and different experiences and audiences. Along with this concept of site, the collection, exhibitions and public activities are shown as a new way of interacting with the program and function of the Museum. The Museum
War photography. Museo Reina Sofía Collection November 2009 During the Spanish Civil War hundreds of pieces of photojournalism were published on the conflict, in magazines in both Spain and abroad. The interest that the war aroused in other countries is manifested in the participation of foreign photographers such as Robert Capa or David Seymour ("Chim"). This room of the Collection also shows the work of photographers such as Agustí Centelles, Alfonso Sánchez Portela and Juan Pando. The Collection
Spanish Pavilion, 1937. Contexts, Museo Reina Sofía Collection November 2009 This room of the Museo Reina Sofía Collection shows posters and drawings made during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), underlining the importance of the document in understanding the history of modern art. Works produced in series were, in 1930s Spain, one of the most effective weapons in communicating the effects of the war, and they influenced not just ordinary citizens but also artists such as Picasso and Miró. The Collection
Juan Gris. La botella de anís, 1914 November 2009 In this work of the Museum's Collection, Juan Gris (1887-1927) plays with truth and illusion, using elements from daily life within the painting. The newspaper cuttings, for example, include messages about the socio-political context and double meanings, statements, opinions and specific allusions to the role of the artist, as interpreted by Eugenio Carmona and María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco. The Collection
Juan Gris. Reconfiguring the modern gaze November 2009 The work of Juan Gris (1887-1927) has often been considered secondary and derivative; this video is a response to such affirmations. Through a visit to the room dedicated to him at Museo Reina Sofía, the work of this painter is re-evaluated, showing it to be the real source of the notions of analytic and synthetic cubism, based on a conception of painting as a poetic analogy of the world. The Collection Centro de estudios
Dorit Margreiter and Lynne Cooke. About Description January 2009 Modern architecture has a twofold condition; it is both construction and one of the mass media. The work of the artist Dorit Margreiter (Austria, 1967) analyses how architecture constitutes representation through a complex dissection of the specificity of the artistic medium. Along with the artist, Lynne Cooke, the subdirector of Museo Reina Sofía and curator, presents the ideas developed in the exhibition. Exhibitions
Serge Guilbaut. Is the war over? November 2010 The author of the book De cómo Nueva York robó a París la idea de arte moderno (Madrid, 1990) and the curator of the exhibitionBajo la bomba: el jazz de la guerra de imágenes transatlántica, 1946-1956 (MACBA and Museo Reina Sofía, 2007) talks about the new post-war scenario in dispute, in which there is a convergence of realism, abstraction and traces of an historical avant-garde that shows clear signs of exhaustion. The Collection
ATLAS. Interview with Georges Didi-Huberman December 2010 In this interview, Georges Didi-Huberman, the curator of the exhibition ATLAS. How to carry the world on one's back? contemplates the model of the atlas as a mechanism by which to reshape the sensory order of the world and the relationships that are established in the creation of knowledge. Taking the work of Aby Warburg as a point of departure, artistic production is contemplated as a montage, in which things, places and time can be reconfigured. Exhibitions Centro de estudios
: VAL DEL OMAR overflow. Conversation with Eugeni Bonet and Javier Ortiz Echagüe October 2010 The work of José Val del Omar (Granada, 1904-Madrid, 1982) goes beyond the usual limits of cinema and technique. The artist developed a particular relationship with poetry, mysticism, experience and moving images throughout his entire career. In contrast with cinema as a spectacle that is merely for contemplation, Val del Omar theorizes on and puts into practice an expanded and physical cinema, which can be summarized in concepts such as apanoramic overflow and diaphonic sound. A video of a conversation with Eugeni Bonet, curator of the exhibition, and Javier Ortiz-Echagüe, assistant curator of the exhibition, at Museo Reina Sofía. Exhibitions
Hans-Peter Feldmann. An art exhibition September 2010 The work of Hans-Peter Feldmann (Düsseldorf, 1941) focuses several decades of careful classification and reordering of the sensible world through the image. With systematic thoroughness, Feldmann classified traces of the society through trivial and banal images and objects, recovering the subjective and narrative power of the image in the viewer. The curator, Helena Tatay, introduces the exhibition, held at the Museo Reina Sofia (September 22, 2010 to February 28, 2011). Exhibitions
For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working. Emmanuel Rodríguez (Traficantes de Sueños) From 2 to 3 July, 2010 Interview produced during "For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working". Workshops on precariousness and self-organization in "creative" work, organized by Traficantes de Sueños, YProductions, Casa Invisible, Universidad Nómada and Museo Reina Sofía. Emmanuel Rodríguez is a historian, sociologist, and co-founder of Universidad Nómada and Traficantes de Sueños, a militant project consisting in a bookshop association and an independent distribution chain in Madrid. Seminars and conferences
For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working. María PTQK From 2 to 3 July, 2010 Interview produced during "For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working". Workshops on precariousness and self-organization in "creative" work, organized by Traficantes de Sueños, YProductions, Casa Invisible, Universidad Nómada and Museo Reina Sofía. María PTQK is a cultural producer, independent researcher, a consultant at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and coordinator of projects with the collective Amasté. Seminars and conferences
For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working. Felipe G.Gil (Zemos 98) From 2 to 3 July, 2010 Interview produced during "For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working". Workshops on precariousness and self-organization in "creative" work, organized by Traficantes de Sueños, YProductions, Casa Invisible, Universidad Nómada and Museo Reina Sofía. Felipe G. Gil is a member of Zemos98, a cultural management collective that works in the fields of networked society, remix culture, and experimentation with formats. Seminars and conferences
For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working. Jara Rocha (MediaLab Prado) From 2 to 3 July, 2010 Interview produced during "For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working". Workshops on precariousness and self-organization in "creative" work, organized by Traficantes de Sueños, YProductions, Casa Invisible, Universidad Nómada and Museo Reina Sofía. Jara Rocha is coordinator of special projects at Medialab-Prado, a space oriented towards production, research and dissemination of digital culture and of the area of confluence between art, science, technology and society. Seminars and conferences
For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working. Pablo de Soto Hackitectura From 2 to 3 July, 2010 Interview produced during "For Those Of Us Who Enjoy Working". Workshops on precariousness and self-organization in "creative" work, organized by Traficantes de Sueños, YProductions, Casa Invisible, Universidad Nómada and Museo Reina Sofía. Hackitectura is a collective of architects, hackers and social activists who experiment with networks, public space and physical bodies. Seminars and conferences