The Weight of a Gesture
Julião Sarmento takes a look at the Gulbenkian, MACBA and ”la Caixa” collections CaixaForum Barcelona.
«This exhibition of objects is nothing but a giant body, brought to life by the sum of the parts that make it up. It is also a body that one desires and whose urgency is unavoidable. And it is, ultimately, a body which by definition is presented and perceived as the duration of a sigh, or the weight of a gesture.”
In the new exhibition in CaixaForum Barcelona, the Portuguese artist Julião Sarmento proposes a conceptual installation, a work of works. He does so through 67 pieces chosen from the collections of the MACBA, the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and ”la Caixa”.
The result is The Weight of a Gesture, an exhibition with a triple attraction. It is a glimpse into Portuguese art, so little known in Spain despite our proximity and cultural affinity, with such names as João Onofre, Rui Chafes, Gabriel Abrantes, Augusto Alves da Silva, Jorge Barradas, José de Almada Negreiros and Joaquim Rodrigo.
It is also an invitation to look with new eyes at the international art produced in recent decades from the perspective of several key works of the three collections: Juan Muñoz, Sigmar Polke, Miroslaw Balka, Rodney Graham, Gerhard Richter, Robert Rauschenberg, Rita McBride, Robert Morris, Rachel Whiteread, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Serra, Robert Gober, Carl Andre, Ignasi Aballí, Francis Alÿ and Philip Guston. And finally, it is an invitation to discover the world of Julião Sarmento: his interest in literature and film, his concern for seduction and violence and a gradual stripping away in the search for essential forms.
The Weight of a Gesture. Julião Sarmento takes a look at the Gulbenkian, MACBA and ”la Caixa” collections. Place: CaixaForum Barcelona (Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia 6-8). Dates: from 11 February to 1 May 2016. Curator: Julião Sarmento, artist. Organisation: ”la Caixa” Foundation, with the collaboration of the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and the MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona).
(Featured Image: Ignasi Aballí, Enciclopedia, 1994. Colección MACBA. Fundació MACBA. Donación Jordi Soley © Ignasi Aballí, 2016)
