Wilfredo Prieto’s Tied up to the table leg

Wilfredo Prieto
Tied up to the table leg
2 February – 24 April 2011

Opening:
Tuesday, 1 February 2011, 12:30 p.m.

Curator:
Ferran Barenblit. Director. CA2M

CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo
Av. Constitución, 23
28931 Móstoles,
Madrid, Spain
www.ca2m.org

The CA2M will organize the exhibition Wilfredo Prieto. Tied up to the table leg from February 2nd to April 24th. This monographic exhibition, presents a great number of his recent works in addition to a great deal of pieces created especially for the exhibition. It is the first exhibition displaying a large amount of his works. The exhibition includes installations, sculptures, objects, interventions, performances and drawings. A formal plurality resulting in a morphological freedom in the artist’s production using these media as ancillary tools to express different concepts. The exhibition will thereby shows highly ambitious pieces in technical and material terms, almost impossible to execute, or works made with simple everyday materials.

The title, Tied up to the table leg, matches one of the works of the exhibition, consisting of a helicopter standing still over the roof of the museum during one hour. A rope will hang from it and be tied up to the leg of a table located on the ground floor, after going through the terrace and down the four floors by the stairs.

After the day of the performance of this action, it will be possible to see the table, the rope and a video showing what happened. This piece introduces some of the elements present in all the works included in the exhibition: conceptual force, narrative brevity, lack of superfluous elements, insisting references to the artistic practice, a delicate sense of humour, puns and poetry with an equal share of persistence and subtlety. Ultimately, his work consists of drawing the most direct line from the original idea to its execution. It is difficult to explain the precision and thoroughness of the artist. His work is the result of a scrupulous commitment, which helps him to consider all of the formal and conceptual aspects as well as to remove any redundancy from his proposals.

The exhibition creates its own narrative through several pieces that, contrasting with their apparent everyday nature, are carefully produced. Some of them are extremely ephemeral, like the puddle of different liquids. Others are a challenge to many of the concepts commonly accepted in contemporary art by questioning some of the things assumed as normal. They all seek to find a minimal motion with meaning, providing it with both poetry and critical sense. In a word, an exhibition that poses multiple questions to the art itself and to its condition of singular human creation.

About the artist
Wilfredo Prieto was born in Sancti Spíritus in the centre of Cuba in 1978. He graduated at the Instituto Sperior de Arte of Havana in 2002. As an early-career artist his work achieved notoriety since his participation in the Havana Biennial in 2003 with the piece Apolitical, which is the reproduction of a set of about thirty black and white flags from these countries. Since then, he exhibited in many museum (Smak, Ghent; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Castello di Rivoli, Turin) and biennales (Singapore, 2005; Venice, 2007; Jafre, 2009; São Paulo, 2010). He lives in Havana and Barcelona. Tied up to the table leg is the first time that the artist is working in an exhibition with such a number of his works, proposing a new dialogue with the viewers.

CA2M Opening hours:
Tuesday – Sunday 11:00 – 21:00 hrs.
Closed on Monday
www.ca2m.org