El Peso de un Gesto

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With this exhibition, Portuguese artist Julião Sarmento establishes a dialogue between the works of various artists and styles originating from three different museums—MACBA, CaixaForum and the CAM from the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

Opening on February 11th in Barcelona’s CaixaForum, Sarmento presents a selection of artwork from various periods that revolve around an enigmatic painting of 19th-century French artist, Edgar Degas, widely considered as one of the founders of the Impressionism movement. Sarmento hopes that his diverse combination of ideas and images will stimulate the viewer’s imagination, and lead them to a variety of individual interpretations.

Among the featured artists is Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz, who was fascinated by illusion and used simple devices to destabilise the viewer’s experience. His first large-scale installation, The Wasteland (1987), invites the spectator to be deceived by its optical, Roman-inspired floor. Also included in the collection is Gabriel Abrantes’ Olympia I&II (2006), a short film that is a diptych of two reconstitutions of Manet’s Olympia. The first tableau features Katie dressed as Olympia; the second one shows Abrantes in a transvestite version of the famous figure. Both seductive and absurd, the film deconstructs the mythical aura of the work while simultaneously complexifying its legacy.

More information here.