MADRID.- This year,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía will host ten exhibitions that will explore different trends in contemporary art. The Sabatini Building will host Ben Shahn's retrospective, which will review the career of this artist, recognized as one of the main figures of American realism, as well as an anthological exhibition of the Basque artist Ibon Aranberri.
2023 is the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, and on this occasion Museo Reina Sofía will present the exhibition Picasso 1906. The Turning Point, which aims to delve into the artist's contribution to the germinal moment of modern art.
Almost fifty artists from the Mediterranean area and the African continent will be part of the thematic exhibition Machinations. In addition, visitors will be able to explore the universe of Alberto Greco and get to know the intense activity of the legendary avant- garde publishing house Something Else Press. Museo Reina Sofía will also present the most ambitious retrospective to date dedicated to the German artist Angela Melitopoulos, and the work of André du Colombier will be shown for the first time in a museum.
Palacio de Cristal (Retiro Park) will host two site-specific installations, one by Ibrahim Mahama, who exhibits for the first time in Spain, exploring issues such as the injustices and weaknesses of global trade; and a new installation by Ulla von Brandenburg, inviting to reflect on people and their environment through the use of scenic elements.
Among the activities planned for 2023, the film and video program will feature comprehensive retrospectives of historical filmmakers, such as Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci-Lucchi. In collaboration with Filmoteca, a retrospective to Peter Watkins will be offered, as well as the cycles Filmar lo posthumano and Bestiario. Cinema and Monstrosities. A series of lectures at the end of the year, with specialists in Picasso, will accompany the exhibition dedicated to this artist.
Exhibitions
During the first months of 2023, the public will be able to continue visiting the following exhibitions: until February 27, Documentary Genealogies. Photography 1848-1917, Natural magic by Leonor Serrano Rivas, and An Act of Seeing that Unfolds. The Susana and Ricardo Steinbruch Collection. Until March 27, Like a Sewing Machine in a Wheat Field dedicated to world of the psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles.
Margarita Azurdia's exhibition, Margarita Rita Rica Dinamita, will be open until April 17. While at Palacio de Cristal (Retiro park), the installation Glass is my skin by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz can be seen until April 9; and at Palacio de Velázquez, the exhibition by Manolo Quejido, Immeasurable Distance, will remain open until May 16.
The rest of the program is completed with the following new temporary exhibitions that will open in 2023:
André du Colombier. The Lyrical Point of View
(16/05/2023 - 28/08/2023)
On May 16, Reina Sofia will present, for the first time in a museum, the work of André du Colombier (Barcelona, 1952-Paris, 2003), an artist who chose to work outside the dominant institutional art system. Questioning the notions of the originality of the work of art and its condition as an object, André du Colombier used photography, produced handwritten or printed texts in Letraset and appropriated and modified mass-produced found images and texts: postcards, food packaging, etc.
Maquinations
(30/05/2023 - 28/08/2023)
The concept of machine, proposed by Deleuze and Guattari as the core of an infinity of potential human and non-human relations, of coupling of components, of flows, and also of machination, of conspiracy against the established power, imagining new possible agency, inventing the necessary means for radical transformation, is explored in this exhibition that will take place from May 30. Almost fifty artists, mostly from the Mediterranean area and the African continent participate in Machinations, including Tejal Shah, Anton Patiño, Zush/Evru or Bouchra Ouizguen. Reflecting on the historical and current circumstances of those territories, the works cover a wide variety of formats and techniques (drawing, painting, comics, sculpture, theater, dance, performance, installation, video, animation or film) with a critical perspective. A dozen of them are new productions, made specifically for this project, and ten others are pieces that are being shown for the first time or have been adapted for the occasion. The show is articulated around three sections: "war machines", "schizo machines" and "cinema and care machines".
Angela Melitopoulos. Cine(so)matrix
(13/06/2023 - 18/09/2023)
On June 13 Museo Reina Sofía will open the exhibition Angela Melitopoulos. Cinesomatrix, the most ambitious retrospective dedicated to the German artist to date. The show traces a journey through the work of Melitopoulos (Munich, 1961) from 1999 to the present day. Taking as a starting point the artist’s latest project Matri-Linear B, currently in progress, the exhibition displays some of her most outstanding projects, in which she uses videos and installations to reflect, among
other aspects, on memory and the development of collective historical consciousness.
Alberto Greco. Viva el arte vivo
(20/06/2023 - 30/10/2023)
From June 20, the public will be able to visit an exhibition devoted to Alberto Greco, which traces the multifaceted and transgressive practices of the artist and the "Greco universe", which was beyond the avant- garde trends of the time. The work of Greco (Buenos Aires 1931 - Barcelona 1965) includes writing, painting, graffiti, collage, drawing and performance. The exhibition will follow Greco's journey from his early works in the field of informalism and expressionist drawing, to the artistic actions he called arte-vivo, based on everyday experiences, the expansion of artistic space and the questioning of the notions of artistic work and authorship.
Call It Something Else. Something Else Press Inc. (1963-1974)
(26/09/2023 - 22/01/2024)
The legendary publishing house Something Else Press is the protagonist of this exhibition that will be on view from September 26. Created in 1963 in New York by artist and publisher Dick Higgins, one of the founders of Fluxus, and active until 1973, the publishing house set out to present creative projects, bringing unconventional content to a wide audience. This exhibition, which brings together the most complete archive on the activity of the avant-garde publishing house, will use these materials to generate activities such as performances and lectures, and will house small satellite exhibitions. It will feature works by artists from different generations and backgrounds (such as Higgins himself, Gertrude Stein, John Cage, Robert Filliou, George Brecht or Tomas Schmit), as well as paying attention to the outstanding contribution of less well-known women artists, such as Alison Knowles and Alice Hutchins.
Ben Shahn
(03/10/2023 - 26/02/2024)
Opening on October 3, the retrospective of Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Lithuanian-born American painter, illustrator, graphic artist, photographer and writer will review the career of the artist, one of the leading figures of American realism born of the Great Depression and the poverty generated by the crisis of 1929. Shahn’s political commitment led him to depict historical events such as the execution of the Italian-American immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti, or to design posters for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO-PAC) union federation in favor of various demands. In the 1950s he achieved enormous popularity, even representing the United States at the 1954 Venice Biennale. The exhibition, which will cover his career chronologically, will include all the techniques the artists employed: tempera painting, posters and sketches for murals, drawing and silkscreen print. As for his photographic work, the exhibition will show how it often served as a visual source for his paintings.
Ibon Aranberri
(17/10/2023 - 22/01/2024)
This anthological exhibition of Ibon Aranberri (Gipuzkoa, Spain 1967), will bring together a selection of projects in the career of the Basque artist, from the 1990s to the present day. Starting on October 17, the show will include little-known early works, emblematic projects in which Aranberri explores the effect of human
action and political action on natural spaces: Luz sobre Lemoniz (2000); Política hidraúlica (2004-2010); Obstáculos para la renovación (2010-2022) etc., as well as pieces related to more recent works that revolve around learning the technical and manual professions of industry, such as Fuentes sin cualidades (2016) and Operatori (2021), among others. Also present in the exhibition will be projects such as Ir. T.nº 513, Exercises on the north side and works related to the her early sculptures.
Picasso 1906. The Turning Point
(14/11/2023 - 04/03/2024)
Within the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso (Málaga, Spain 1881 - Mougins, France 1973), the Reina Sofia Museum is dedicating an exhibition focusing on the work he produced in 1906, a year which can be seen as a turning point in his career. The exhibition, curated by Eugenio Carmona, opens on November 14 and will reveal new facets of Picasso's work that connect with themes of current interest, such as the construction of the body, cultural diversity and the Nachleben. The year 1906 is key in the production and life of Picasso for several reasons: it coincides with the presentation of the exhibition dedicated to Henri Matisse at the Druet Gallery in Paris, the painter discovers in the Louvre the Iberian art of Osuna and the Cerro de los Santos and strengthens his friendship with the Stein family. It is also the year in which he travels to Gósol, a town in Lleida, where he stays for about three months and experiences a conceptual, aesthetic and formal revolution that is fundamental to understand how his art evolves towards pre- Cubist notions.
Palacio de Cristal (Retiro Park)
Ibrahim Mahama
(11/05/2023 - 10/09/23)
For the first time in Spain, Ibrahim Mahama (Tamale, Ghana, 1987) will present a large-scale installation. Mahama examines issues such as migration, globalization, recycling or economic exchange, consubstantial to the past and present of his native country. The exhibition will be on display from May 11. The use of jute sacks of coffee, cocoa or rice, which are sewn by his collaborators, usually migrants, is a common feature in his installations. The process as part of the work, and the collective authorship, are the backbone of the work of the Ghanaian artist and whose work highlights the scourges, injustices and weaknesses of global trade.
Ulla von Brandenburg
(10/10/2023 - 25/02/2024)
Ulla von Brandenburg (Karlsruhe, Germany, 1974) will invite us, from October 10, to reflect on people and their interrelationship with the environment. The work of von Brandesburg encourages the viewer to be part of the scene and to resignify it. All her oeuvre (installations, films, murals, performances...) denotes a rigorous control of the scenic language (curtains, stairs…) that connect with his interest in psychoanalysis, magic and other esoteric rituals to investigate social structures and propose new alternatives.
