Six new exhibitions

Georges Adéagbo, Brumaria, Gervasio Sánchez, Akram Zaatari
29 January–5 June 2011

Pennacchio Argentato at the Laboratorio 987, and the cneai = Centre National de l’Èdition et de l’Art Imprimé at the Showcase Project
29 January–27 March 2011

Museo De Arte Contemporáneo De Castilla y León
Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses, 24
24008 León

www.musac.es

MUSAC presents The Mission and the Missioners, the first solo exhibition in Spain of African artist Georges Adéagbo. This show displays the intercultural and inter-textual “assemblages” of this key figure in contemporary art from Africa and the international art scene. MUSAC (León, Spain), the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain), and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain) will simultaneously host the exhibition Desaparecidos by Gervasio Sánchez, an extensive documentary photography project centred on the forced disappearances that took place in eleven countries throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe. Under the title The Uneasy Subject, MUSAC presents the first solo project by Libanese artist Akram Zaatari in Spain. The title of the exhibition refers to the status of the body in Lebanese and Arab societies in general, extending the scope of the historical, social and political issues that Zaatari’s work deals with. Brumaria shows Ordenando el vacío. Brumaria Works#3 Expanded Violences, an analysis proposal at the intersection of art and violence. Also on the 29 of January, the Laboratorio 987 introduces a new phase in its programming, with an exhibition by artists Pennacchio Argentato. This new phase, which is designed as a projection platform for young curators working in Spain, begins with a year long exhibition project curated by the independent curatorial office Latitudes. Last but not least, MUSAC Showcases display the editorial project Un An Independent and Free Publisher Sides with the artists, cneai: Centre National de l’Edition et de l’Art Imprimé.

Georges Adéagbo, The Mission and the Missionaries
Curator: Octavio Zaya, with the collaboration of Stephan Köhler

MUSAC, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (León, Spain), presents The Mission and the Missionaries, the first individual exhibition in Spain by African artist Georges Adéagbo (Cotonou, Benin, 1942). The work of Adéagbo is characterized by the combination of diverse objects and texts, which he commissions, collects, or finds in Cotonou, where he lives, and in the areas around the particular places where he presents his exhibitions, León in this case. But Adeágbo’s work is not so much about the plurality (of objects and texts) as it is about the difficult problems, complexities and negotiations of accumulation and consumption, translations and transformations, relations, proximities, and displacements. There is usually a central theme that connects all the elements of the “assemblage” and the way he devises the execution of the installation, and sets the tension between the visual and the verbal, the images and the texts, always juxtaposing cultural objects and aesthetic genres, diverse and distinct genealogies and provenances that involve the experience of the spectator.

Gervasio Sánchez, Desaparecidos (Disappeared)
Curator: Sandra Balsells

The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (León, Spain), the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain) shall simultaneously host the exhibition Desaparecidos by Gervasio Sánchez (Córdoba, Spain, 1959), an extensive documentary photography project focused on the forced disappearances carried out in eleven countries throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe where these acts of violence have taken place. Desaparecidos stands out as a compelling document against oblivion, intended to recover the buried memory of people missing as a result of different armed conflicts and repressive processes. The exhibition is presented in the form of a major cultural operation where, for the first time in Spain, three cities (León, Barcelona and Madrid) will host a photographic project on the same theme by the same author, though specific approaches and contents will vary.

Akram Zaatari, The Uneasy Subject
Curator: Juan Vicente Aliaga

The Uneasy Subject, a site-specific project by artist Akram Zaatari (Saida, Lebanon, 1966) includes an exhibition, a video programme, a book and a conference. The title The Uneasy Subject refers to the status of the body in Lebanese and Arab societies in general, thus extending the scope of the historical, sociological and political themes dealt with in the artist’s work. The exhibition, through a range of photographs, videos, films and documentary material, explores the various roles enacted by and expectations placed upon men and women in the Arab world. Representations of the body (and nudity), both individually and as collective actions, and shifts in interpersonal relationships upon the arrival of new media and technologies such as the internet, are some of the issues presented in The Uneasy Subject. The Uneasy Subject is co-produced with MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, (México City, www.muac.unam.mx), where it will travel from February 2012.

Brumaria, Un modo de organización alrededor del vacío. Brumaria Works#3 Expanded Violences
Curators: Agustín Pérez Rubio – Brumaria

Starting on the 29 of January 2011, MUSAC’s Exhibition Hall 1 will feature Un modo de organización alrededor del vacío. Brumaria Works#3 Expanded Violences. This exhibition is a continuation of the work in progress by Brumaria, a platform/publication, research and analysis space, and artistic endeavour. This multi-format project focuses on the relationship amongst art, war waged on multiple fronts, and terrorism. Brumaria Works#3, a site-specific project for MUSAC, opens this field of analysis to new registers and seeks to give body to these concerns of our contemporary life—besieged and in a state of war.

Laboratorio 987. Pennacchio Argentato, Amikejo exhibition cycle
Curators: Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna)

On 29 January 2011 MUSAC’s Laboratorio 987 will enter a new phase in its exhibition programming, focused on providing a projection platform not only for artists, but also for young curators working in Spain. Under the new scheme, each year MUSAC will invite a limited number of curators to submit a year-long curatorial project for Laboratorio 987, guided by the premise of developing a conceptual approach through four exhibitions for the museum’s project room. This new line of work will begin with an exhibitions of works by artists Pennacchio Argentato belonging to the Amikejo exhibition cycle, set to develop throughout 2011 over a series of four exhibitions curated by the independent curatorial office Latitudes, created in 2005 in Barcelona by Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna, and structured around the concept of spatial twinning and relationships developing from collaborative pairs

Showcase project, cneai = Centre National de l’Èdition et de l’Art Imprimé, An Independent and Free Publisher Sides with the Artists
Curators: Sylvie Boulanger, María Inés Rodríguez

In line with its ongoing commitment to provide greater visibility to creative publishing and related projects, MUSAC’s Showcases are to feature a selection of works held in the collection of cneai = Centre National de l’Edition et de l’Art Imprimé (French National Centre for Prints and Printed Art), under the title Un editor independiente y libre se posiciona del lado de los artistas (An Independent and Free Publisher Sides with the Artists). From its inception, this institution has focused on the production and promotion of artist’s books and other publications.

Press releases and high resolution images at www.musac.es/prensa
MUSAC Press office: prensa@musac.es/ (T)0034 987 091103

Image above:
Photo by Sergio Belinchón.