As a follow up to Tuesday's post, let's continue to take a note of the exhibitions opening this fall that may be inspiring for creative minds. The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) is launching in September a conceptual joint exhibition of works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tomás Saraceno.
Curated by Stefanie Hessler "Más-que-humanas" (More-than-humans; 25th September - 1st December 2019, the Moneo Temporary Exhibition Hall, on the ground floor of the museum) will tackle a series of contemporary questions about technologies, artificial intelligence, the minds of animals, and the power and attraction of the unknown.
It will feature "Opera (QM.15)" (2016) by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, a holographic work in which the artist appears as the soprano Maria Callas. In an elegant dress and dramatic make-up this vision performs arias from Luigi Cherubini's "Medea", Amilcare Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" and Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata".
This is part of a wider body of works in which Gonzalez-Foerster performs as legendary figures, such as Marilyn Monroe and Sarah Bernhardt, that look like ghostly apparitions. The artist transforms into these figures analysing in this way the tragedy and mystery that surrounded their lives.
In these performances she is inspired by the history of photography, early cinema and an interest in the uncanny, Gonzalez-Foerster interprets indeed each session as "a séance" or "spiritual session", so the "more-than-humans" theme is applied to the possibility of going beyond life and explore a realm inhabited by ghostly visions.
Readers of this site are familiar with the works of Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno and in particular with his inflatable and floating aerosolar sculptures and his researches on spider webs. Saraceno's installations usually combine art and science, as proved also by the installations that will be on display at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Over more than a decade Saraceno put together an interdisciplinary network exploring scientific, philosophical, cultural and artistic connections between humans and spiders/webs. He reunited all these studies and experimental practices on the Arachnophilia platform and he will take to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza some of his spider webs.
Inspired and mesmerised by these complex yet incredibly fragile structures, Saraceno is also obsessed with the possibilities they can offer to artists willing to explore their world.
So, while at the current Venice Biennale Saraceno looked at divination (a theme that connects his work to Gonzalez-Foerster's spiritual sessions) in conjunction with spider webs, here he will look at the possibility of using spider webs as musical instruments.
Saraceno will amplify the vibrations of spider/webs as if they were musical instruments, making them audible for human participants, creating in this way floating landscapes of sensorial and living connections that prompt visitors to become more aware of the unheard and unnoticed voices that surround us.
In Saraceno's practice spider webs also represent data about forms of sociality, construction, and communication that could prove essential for imagining new ways for humans to inhabit the world and that's where his installations tie in with the "more than humans" theme.
The exhibition at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza will also feature a rich public programme with activities and conferences and even a workshop by the Tomás Saraceno Studio focusing on arachnophobia and arachnophilia.
Image credits for this post
1 - 2. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, OPERA (QM.15), 2016, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Photo: Andrea Rossetti, 2016.
3 - 4. Tomás Saraceno, How to entangle the universe in a spider web?, 2018. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
Photo: Courtesy the artist | Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles
5. Solitary semi-social mapping of Ceginus by a duet of Nephila senegalensis, four weeks and a triplet of Cyrtophora citricola, three weeks, 2018
Photo: Courtesy the artist | Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles
6. Solitary semi-social mapping of HS 1700+6416 by a solo Nephila senegalensis - one week and a solo Cyrtophora citricola, three weeks, 2016
Photo: Courtesy the artist | Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles
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