MADRID.- Matadero Madrid once more joins in the celebrations to mark Dual-Year Spain-Japan 2013/2014 through this exhibition project from Esther Pizarro curated by Menene Gras Balaguer.
A Japanese garden is a space that encourages contemplation by imitating nature, which it attempts to reproduce in miniature, while sharing aesthetic codes through the use of calligraphy, art and tradition. All the components that make up a Japanese garden include a symbolism and a set of rules that tell us about the meaning of their arrangement, as if they were part of a graphic script with a defined cultural identity. This project produced by Matadero Madrid and Casa Asia delimits the space of the garden over the territorial layout occupied by the country. It is a dry garden surrounded by a sea of salt in which regions have become islands through the creation of paths that run between them, allowing visitors to walk among them as if they were inside a living organism and admire the image of Mother Nature depicted on each representation.
You can visit this unique installation by going along to Nave 16 at Matadero Madrid
Also:
Historias de Madrid: Fernando Baena
The history of the city and its landscapes, performed by ten artists or collectives from Madrid, including a series of videos that encompass the work by Fernando Baena entitled Stories from Madrid. It delves into the concept of contextualisation in relation to the disciplines of video, performance and history. Within the limits of these disciplines, fundamental topics are questioned, such as presence, real time and specific space, everyday life, the ephemeral, non-repeatability or records.
History works through absence, as opposed to performance art, which works through presence. It revisits and reconstructs the past through footprints, documents and archives, ultimately influencing the present. The active presence of the performer entails history and fiction, as the fundamental difference between both fields is the claim to truth of the first, and we all know that rhetoric governs its descriptions. In this work, past events are used to stimulate sensitivity. They thus constitute the basis for a mental construction that brings together two moments in space-time according to the most immediate concerns of each artist.
Contextualised performance art removes some of the barriers between the work and the audience and attempts to interact with them by involving the audience in social reality and its many issues. It therefore prefers open spaces, where people are found, beyond galleries and museums, emphasising lived experience within that which can be experienced.
The participating artists are Rafael Sánchez Mateos, Anna Gimein, Velvet & Crochet, Andrés Senra, Pepe Murciego, Marianela León, Discoteca Flaming Star, Rubén Santiago, Nieves Correa - Abel Loureda andLos Torreznos.
We-Traders: Swapping crisis for city
In Lisbon, Madrid, Toulouse, Turin and Berlin the current crisis manifests different facets from empty coffers and social polarisation to a lack of civic sense as a result of excessive growth.
Designers, artists, architects... These are examples of citizens from across southwest Europe taking the initiative to re-appropriate urban space. They are redefining the relation between value, profit and public good. And they are able to motivate fellow citizens to follow suit. Essentially, this project is a comparison between different local solutions to transnational issues. Which practices have worked well in a particular context? What led to their success? Can they be replicated elsewhere? How does the collaboration between private initiative and public bodies work out?
We-Traders is a platform of knowledge, production and exposition for the following initiatives:
MADRID - Campo de Cebada, Elii / Gabinete de Crisis de Ficciones Políticas, Teamlabs / Walkinn Coop, Todo por la Praxis, [VIC] Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas.
TURIN - Buena Vista Social Housing, Casa del Quartiere, Il Piccolo Cinema, Miraorti, Toolbox Coworking / FabLab.
LISBON - A Linha, Agulha Num Palheiro, BIP/ZIP, Cozinha Popular da Mouraria, O Espelho.
TOULOUSE - AERA Habitat, Bois & Cie, Carrefour Culturel Arnaud Bernard, Le potager de Camille, Mix’Art Myrys.
BERLIN - Allmende-Kontor, betahaus/Open Design City, RÜTLI-WEAR, Initiative Möckernkiez.
Collaborating collectives: Zuloark, Cocook, Taller Omnívoros, [PEC] Plataforma en Construcción.
We-Traders is an initiative from the Goethe-Institut Brussels in conjunction with its offices in Madrid, Turin, Berlin, Lisbon and Toulouse.
Artistic direction: Angelika Fitz (Vienna), Rose Epple (Berlin)
Co-Curators: Julia Albani (Lisbon), Javier Duero (Madrid), Stéphane Gruet (Toulouse), Luisa Perlo and Lisa Parola (Turin)
Es Capital: Cristina Lucas
Cristina Lucas has chosen the former cold room at Legazpi slaughterhouse as the venue for a context-specific work analysing some of the key uncertainties, paradoxes and challenges of the current capitalist system. Es Capital is curated by Manuela Villa and encompasses four new works created in co-production with AC/E, in collaboration with Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo and Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid and sponsored by DKV.
Plusvalía documents the investigation undertaken by the artist to understand the value of Capital, written by Karl Marx in the late 19th century and one of the most influential critiques of political economy of our times. In this manuscript, Marx popularises the term "surplus value", which he defines as the profit created by the workers and appropriated by the capitalist. “Without such profit, there would be no capitalist society”, he warns.
The relationship between value in use and exchange value within a society governed by the rules of financial capitalism is also the basis of the work entitled Montaña de oro (Mountain of Gold), two photographs showing the amount of gold that is stored at the Bank of Spain. It is worth remembering that, while the Gold Standard prevailed, this precious metal set the value of a country's monetary unit.
The series of interviews entitled Capitalismo filosófico (Philosophical Capitalism) is an attempt to understand the relationship that exists between the philosophical concepts traded by companies and their business activity. What does Death represent for an undertaker's? What does Beauty represent for a cosmetic surgery clinic? What does Truth represent for a notary public's office?
In El superbien común (The Super Common Good), the artist analyses one of the key paradoxes of the capitalist system: the shortage of resources and our planet's inability to generate sufficient wealth if the entire population aspires to a lifestyle based on an unlimited consumption of goods and services.
