Holiday In Spain

The difference in the style of art between the Prado and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is amazing.  If the Prado were a knight in shining armor from King Arthur’s Court, the Reina Sofia would be a skateboarder from California in 2008.  Highlights included: Picasso’s Guernica, numerous bird paintings by Joan Miró, random collections of junk called “sculptures,” and of course Salvador Dali’s famous “The Great Masturbator.”  All of the works I saw looked so utterly simple I pondered whether a kindergarten had produced them, but at the same time they were so random and worked so well that I wondered how you could plan to create pieces like that and insert such emotions in them.

Thursday through Saturday there was a temporary exhibition of live art at the Reina Sofia.  It was called “el arte es accion.”  I went Thursday and Friday evening.  I’m not sure if I’ll make it back tonight to see the final day.  I’m not sure what to make of this exhibition so instead of trying to analyze or critique it I’m simply going to describe it and you can take out of it what you like:

Thursday, January 24

Scene 1: about 20 people seated on chairs facing a crowded auditorium lobby of maybe a couple hundred spectators.  As we stared at them anxiously they began to count. “Uno, dos, ters, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho…” and they continued to count.  About 50 minutes later they stopped.  They’d counted to 2861.  After about 10 minutes the majority of the crowd had moved on to the next performance, I think you can understand why.

Scene 2: a film begins playing on a large screen.  There are many glass jars filled half full of water.  A man enters and starts sliding the jars to the sides of the room.  He then proceeds to flip the jars over one at a time preserving the water inside and creating a seal.  Next he walks around the room on the jars.  Meanwhile in real life… a man enters with a chair.  He says “Careful broken glass” and sits on the chair.  When he stands up several minutes later he has a black stripe on the back of his white button up because there was wet paint on the back of the chair.  Next he unwraps a belt from the back of the chair and then rewraps it.  He then stands on the chair.  He takes some small white paper flags.  Placing them inside his sleeves he lights them on fire and then blows them out.  He repeats this several times.  Meanwhile the film continues to play behind him.  He then places a long cloth on a table and glass of red wine.  After he slowly pulls the bunched up cloth flat he places the glass underneath the cloth and drags a stained red path from the center to the end of the table.

Scene 3: a man removes a stone flute from an old a tattered suitcase. He begins to play an odd sort of whistling tune.  He circles the room several times until a beautiful melody comes out.  Next he begins to play the flute in an aquarium of water.  It blows bubbles and nothing more.  He lays it to rest at the bottom.  He then removes a new flute.  This one makes horrible music as he walks around the room however when he begins to play it in the water an actual song comes out.  Summary: one flute works out of water, one flute works in the water.

Friday, January 25

Scene 1: a woman sits on a chair at the end of a long piece of white paper.  She is dressed all in black.  She stands up walks to the other end, removes her shoes and steps in black paint.  She walks across the paper many times holding an old wooden frame above her head.  She puts her shoes back on.  Next she writes on an overhead projector.  She then goes to place candles in the left over black paint.  She lights them and places the frame around them.  She takes a toilet seat and places it in the middle of the performing area.  With a vacuum cleaner she vacuums the floor around the candles and then uses it to snuff out the flames.  Rolling up the foot printed paper into a ring she lights another candle and places it in the center of the circle.  Four packages of cheese are opened and passed around the room for people to smell.  She then unrolls a large piece of plastic and proceeds to cup up five large sausage links with an electric carving knife.  Opening two bottles of ketchup and two bottles of mustard she empties them on the plastic on top of the sausage.  She mixes it all up and then ties the plastic up with a string.  She places the package on her head and then removes it and sets it in the toilet seat.  After placing a new message that says “1) A work can produce an aesthetic experience. 2) An aesthetic experience is a good thing.  3) Anything that can produce a good thing is also, always good in itself.  4) Therefore a work is always good to some extent.  5) In other words- a work can produce something that is good.  6) So anything that can produce good, is also good in itself” she donned a hat that she covered in whipped cream and bowed.

Scene 2: a man stacks water glasses into towers.  When they get too tall they fall over and the glass breaks.  Once most of the glasses are broken, he takes four new ones and places them under the legs of a chair.  He then sits in the chair.  Holding two large water bottles he pours them into buckets on either side of him.  He pours the water back and forth between the buckets.  Next he removes one of the glasses from under the chair, the chair remains upright.  Filling the glass with water he begins to pour it out slowly and then rapidly catches the falling water in the glass again.  He repeats this until there is nothing left.

Scene 3: he begins by denouncing the dictators in Latin America in the 20^th century.  Then he stands in front of a white sheet of paper holding a red marker in front of him.  After a short period of time, someone from the audience walks up and traces him on the paper.  Taking a Polaroid camera he circles the crowd taking pictures of several people.  After they develop he collects them and tapes them to the paper around his head.  With an exacta knife he cuts out his outline and places it on the floor.  Lighting a match he burns his paper body.  He places a black covering over his head and sits clacking stones together while it burns.  His performance is complete when he hands out small black and white yearbook photos.

Interesting to say the least.

I’ve chosen half of my classes, the rest I will know next Friday.  Next weekend is a long weekend because my Spanish classes end and I have a few free days until the semester begins.  Monday I plan to take a day trip to Toledo or El Escorial.  Then Tuesday is fat Tuesday and my friend Claudia and I are planning a day full of food.  We plan to bake cookies, and make pancakes with chocolate chips at her apartment.  The day will probably also include ice cream and cheap wine and of course fresh bread.