Size does matter at Fundación Juan March

2023-04-17 12:31:15
Within the artistic languages ​​of the 20th century, sculpture has almost certainly been the medium that has experienced the most singular evolution, and also probably the most plural. A language that went from being the least permeable to the avant-garde revolution to become the repository of some of the greatest spatial transformations of its time, in fierce conflict with object art, design and installations. It is not strange, then, that this danger of loss of identity led Rosalind Krauss in the 70s to establish a double negative as a statement: “What is neither architecture nor landscape is sculpture.” Related News standard Yes When the sculpture came down from the pedestal and went out into the streets Nativity Pulido standard Yes ART Eusebio Sempere or the tangible light that denies haste Javier Rubio Nomblot In this context of constant review and reflection on contemporary sculptural practices, the Fundación Juan March presents a new, immersive and global event whose fundamental axis is a very broad look at what has been practiced during the second half of the 20th century, always from the particular perspective of the concept of scale. A concept that, obviously, is not limited to reflecting on the gradation of its size, but goes much deeper into its analysis, as Penelope Curtis, guest curator, points out: «Scale as something more than a simple way of expanding or reducing an original model, since it has a wider range of meanings and is itself much more flexible than is attributed to it in conventional debate’. A debate on a larger scale In this way, the exhibition is part of a debate on a larger scale – never better said – regarding the evolution experienced by the sculptural language, especially from the 70s. An evolution among whose identity traits we could cite the expansion of the exhibition space beyond the limits of the museum or gallery, the abandonment of the pedestal, already begun some time ago by Rodin, in view of the desire to break with the sense of a traditional monument and integrate the viewer more deeply, the multiple synergies that are They will produce with the nascent installations and interventions, sharing a spatio-temporal temperature in many cases analogous to the syntax of the ‘performance’, and also a fertile dialogue with architecture, the latter aspect that has always been capital in the sculptural act. This appointment is also part of a clear vocation, which we can call the Juan March space or three-dimensional, and which should be linked to previous proposals such as the monographs dedicated to figures such as Giacometti, Julio González and Isamu Noguchi, or later, already in the 80s, quotes such as ‘Minimal Art’, ‘Repetitive Structures’, and, above all, ‘Half a Century of Sculpture (1900-1945)’, an excellent project that analyzed these practices from the avant-garde to the mid-20th century. Come to light. Above, work by Anne and Patrick Poirier. On these lines, proposals by Dan Flavin and Dan Graham ABC The show brings together more than 100 works by 70 top-level artists. And it is structured around five sections that occupy not only the regular exhibition spaces of the Foundation, but also the lobby, the stairs, the mezzanine, the patio, the adjoining garden of the Banca March and even the streets that surround it, assembling In this way, a splendid and very well thought out exhibition proposal, that global and enveloping look to which he referred at the beginning of the article. I do not want to stop pondering the difficulty of carrying out a project of these characteristics in which, as the main thesis, the idea of ​​scale in sculpture emerges, a concept, on the other hand, strangely little reflected before. In my opinion, its organizers decidedly rise to the challenge, fundamentally by understanding intelligently that such a project required a display that went beyond the traditional exhibition space, thus reflecting one of the basic features of these new sculptural practices such as its spatial expansion. A concept of home Within the Foundation’s own rooms, the exhibition is divided into four sections. ‘Recinto’ houses works by such prominent authors as Noguchi, Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, David Smith or Juan Muñoz, in which the concept of home, of inhabiting, the representation of rooms, which at the same time can protect or trap, can be clearly perceived , in a dialectic that goes from the public to the private. ‘Measure’ reflects the desire, sometimes even the obsession of certain artists, for a polysemic will to measure that was not alien to certain space-time practices characteristic of the 60s, strongly anthropocentric. Here I would highlight pieces by Duchamp, Pistoletto, Carel Visser, Richard Long or the curious presence in an apparently distant context of the Eames couple. ‘Progression’ explores the study of forms subjected to the processes of repetition, permutation and serialization. Very diverse approaches, some more linked to mathematics and geometry, others more lyrical and narrative, even philosophical, which can be seen in artists such as Hans Hacke, Sol LeWitt, Elena Asins, Bruce Nauman, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd or Gabriel Orozco. For its part, ‘Proportion’ focuses on certain volumetric practices related to architecture and set design, in which the game of scales and the concept of a model are maximized and minimized based on expressive interests. This is how I think of Naum Gabo, Oldenburg, Dan Graham, Katharina Fritsch, Carl André or Chris Burden. Park ideas. Above, installation by Elisabeth Wright. On these lines, works by Thomas Schütte and Juan Muñoz ABC The last chapter, ‘Occupation’, expands -literally- to other spaces beyond the rooms. The sense of scale acquires special significance when combining works as disparate in size, measure and language as those by Elizabeth Wright, Miguel Palma, Tony Oursler, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Luis Camnitzer, Navarro Baldeweg or Oswaldo Maciá. Exhibition ‘Scale: Sculpture (1945-2000)’ Collective. Juan March Foundation. Madrid. C/ Castelló, 77. Curators: Penélope Curtis, Manuel Fontán del Junco and Inés Vallejo. Until July 2 Finally, the spectators of this splendid exhibition, undoubtedly one of the best of the season, will still have the opportunity to wander, like a true auditory flâneur, around the Foundation to listen to a series of fifteen sound fragments that represent different approaches to the concept of scale from the perspective of sound art. Definitely, Krauss must have had a point. The sculpture expands… and contracts. Question of scales.
#Size #matter #Fundación #Juan #March