CaixaForum Barcelona at its boldest presents exhibitions on Warhol, Disney, the British Museum and the Musée du Louvre

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1 The great cultures of the past will be the stars of the coming season at CaixaForum Barcelona, which will be mounting a total of seven exhibitions CaixaForum Barcelona at its boldest presents exhibitions on Warhol, Disney, the British Museum and the Musée du Louvre la Caixa Foundation presents the programme for its cultural centre in Barcelona for the season, featuring an impressive range of quality events suitable for everyone. During the season , the 44 exhibitions mounted at the eight CaixaForum centres received more than 2.3 million visitors. CaixaForum Barcelona was visited by more than people last year and hosted over 2,400 activities. CaixaForum Barcelona will present three outstanding projects thanks to partnerships established in recent years with major international bodies such as the Musée du Louvre and the British Museum. An ambitious display on ancient Greece, put together with the support of the British Museum, will analyse the competitive spirit characteristic of this civilisation, and not just in the realm of sports that we are already familiar with. Then it will be the turn of the pharaohs in an exhibition that will examine the figure of the pharaoh and what it meant to be the supreme ruler of the Egyptian Empire. Together with the Louvre and the Louvre-Lens museum, la Caixa Foundation will present the first exhibition in Spain on music in ancient civilisations, from the Far East to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Pop art will feature next season in the form of the famous Campbell s Soup Can series and the legends of film turned into major icons of contemporary art. The Andy Warhol. Mechanical Art exhibition takes a

2 comprehensive and multifaceted look at the creative evolution of this celebrated American artist. Following the success of the Pixar show, animated film will return to CaixaForum Barcelona with the Disney. The Art of Storytelling exhibition, in which visitors will have the opportunity to discover the legendary American studio s epic tradition of narrating stories through emblematic characters such as Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Queen Elsa from Frozen. la Caixa Collection of Contemporary Art will feature prominently in the new season with Turbulence, in which some of its most recent acquisitions will be presented. Comisart will also return to Barcelona with the three prize-winning projects from the third competition for up-and-coming curators. Barcelona, 5 September This morning Elisa Durán, the Deputy General Director of la Caixa Banking Foundation; Ignasi Miró, the Director of the Culture Department, and Valentí Farràs, the Director of CaixaForum Barcelona, presented the programme for the coming season at the foundation s cultural centre. This programme of events is once again founded on a clear principle: the link between culture and citizens. CaixaForum s unique model is manifested in the conception of exhibitions specifically designed to be shown in the foundation s cultural centres. The CaixaForum experience encompasses far more than exhibitions, as it includes an extensive and comprehensive range of activities, among them music, talks and debates, social seminars, educational workshops and workshops for families, as well as activities aimed at groups of older people. There are eight CaixaForum cultural centres, situated in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Zaragoza, Palma, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. la Caixa Foundation organised in the season a total of 44 exhibitions on 31 different subjects, and its centres received a total of 2,318,507 visitors last year. CaixaForum Barcelona was visited by people and hosted more than 2,400 activities. 3

3 For the new season at its CaixaForum centres, la Caixa Foundation has designed an innovative overall programme that draws on its experience and principles and the partnerships it has forged over the years with major international cultural institutions. From Ancient Egypt to contemporary art, taking in Disney animation along the way The programme includes a wide range of exhibitions that extend from the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt to the very latest artistic creation. The season features exhibitions never seen before and co-productions with leading international museums, and covers a number of different disciplines such as archaeology, painting, photography and film. The first major exhibition in the autumn brings together a remarkable selection of works by the most iconic Pop artist in history. Warhol. Mechanical Art will come to Barcelona with about 350 works and a whole host of products designed and issued by the artist. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, screen prints, audio-visual installations, artist s books, films, album covers, posters, magazines, objects and photographic and sound material. A complete retrospective that will give visitors insights into the underground culture that emerged in the early years of the second half of the 20th century in New York when Warhol founded his legendary studio, the Factory. The exhibition will be accompanied by Warhol Night, given over exclusively to the artist. To be attended by some of the leading creators of the time, this festive event will look back over Warhol s career. As in previous seasons, the programme will also include the major cultures of the past, one of the traditional types of exhibition put on by la Caixa Foundation. This year, it will be presenting three ambitious and very different shows resulting from its partnerships with two of the most prestigious museums in the world. Following the exhibition in the last season of the first joint project with the British Museum, The Pillars of Europe. The Middle Ages at the British Museum, this year sees the arrival of two other impressive exhibitions based on the museum s holdings thanks to the partnership between the two bodies. 4

4 The first of these is Agon! Competition in Ancient Greece, a display of a large selection of Greek objects in the British Museum s collections, among them refined and rare examples of armour, sculpture, jewellery, coinage and pottery. Among the items are a number of iconic pieces from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, which are being shown outside London in this exhibition for the first time. The exhibition will also include a night during which visitors will be sensorially immersed in Greek culture thanks to culinary and archaeological activities. Hero or athlete. Roman marble statue (1st century AD) after a Greek original (c BC) The Trustees of the British Museum In June, the British Museum will also bring to CaixaForum Barcelona the pieces that will feature in Pharaoh. King of Egypt, an exhibition that explores the symbolism and ideology of Egyptian royalty and which aims to reveal the realities that lay behind these rulers. The display consists of more than 150 exhibits from the British Museum, which, with over 100,000 items, holds the largest collection of Egyptian objects outside of Egypt. Within the framework of the alliance between la Caixa Foundation and the Louvre, the partners, together with the Louvre-Lens museum, will be jointly presenting Music in antiquity, the first exhibition in Spain on music in ancient civilisations, from the Far East to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Music will become the central element in the exhibition, enabling visitors to discover the social, political and religious context of these lost civilisations. The show will feature around 400 works of a varied nature, some of which have never been displayed in public before due to their fragility. The exhibition will also include audio devices that will enable visitors to listen to reconstructions of the sounds of ancient instruments and to the oldest known singing in the world. Stele of the blind harpist playing to the god Ra ( BC). Thebes, Egypt. Musée du Louvre, dist. RMN-Grand Palais, Christian Decamps 5

5 Film and particularly animation will feature prominently this season in an exhibition on Disney in which visitors will have the opportunity to discover the epic tradition of storytelling through iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse and Snow White. Entitled Disney. The Art of Storytelling, the The Little Mermaid (1989). Disney Enterprises Inc., 2017 exhibition takes us back to the origins of many of the films from this American studio myths, legends, fables and fairy tales illustrated by an extensive selection of drawings created using a wide variety of techniques that take us on a visual tour of Disney s creative history from the 1930s right up to recent productions such as Frozen and including the much-loved classics, among them Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Hercules and many others. la Caixa Collection of Contemporary Art will have a notable presence this season in the Turbulence exhibition, the conceptual framework of which expresses the agitation and disturbances that are responsible for the contradictions that disturb the daily experience of our social environment. The exhibition consists of pieces in la Caixa Collection by artists working in a number of registers and with a multiplicity of poetic voices, and who reflect critically on the world, its past and its present. The exhibits include works recently acquired by the foundation that have not previously been shown in public as well as others that are already well known and which between them reinforce the narrative of an art that expresses the social tensions of our world. As in previous seasons, Room 2 at CaixaForum will be given over in its entirety to contemporary art, in this case a new edition of Comisart, which opens in November. The three consecutive exhibitions that will be on display are the result of the third Comisart call for applications for professional grants for young people wanting to devote themselves to art curating. The exhibitions are H(a)unting Images: Anatomy of a Gunshot, by Ada Sbriccoli and Arola Valls; Under the Arm: Between the Palm of the Hand and the Armpit, curated by Ángel Calvo; and You Are Not Here, by the curator Alexandra Laudo. CaixaForum Barcelona: much more than an exhibition space 6

6 CaixaForum Barcelona is not just an exhibition space but much, much more. It provides a base from which la Caixa Foundation works to foster art and culture as tools to bring about social change and to contribute to raising awareness of the humanities, while at the same time encouraging debate on the ideas, trends and research in contemporary society. Through an extensive array of cultural proposals including seasons of talks, workshops, concerts, the performing arts and film the aim is to explore in depth the foundations of our culture and to offer the keys that will enable us to understand the major transformations taking place in society today. Of all the activities in this wide-ranging programme, two events in the coming months are worthy of special mention due to their exceptional nature: - Encounters with Artists, launched in 2013, consists of monthly events intended to raise awareness of young creators and the latest trends in art by presenting the most notable up-and-coming young artists working today. This year, we take another step forward by organising the Creation Labs. This new format will offer the opportunity to work hand in hand with the same artists who will be giving the talks. The workshops will be held on Saturday mornings and will last for three hours. Flavita Banana, Onionlab and Isabelita Virtual are just some of the artists who will be taking part this season. - Curiosity Saved the Cat. Six Dialogues for Learning and Advancing is a season of six talks, organised in conjunction with the cultural publication Hänsel i Gretel, that uphold curiosity as a desire for emotion, as an essential step towards knowledge, as a path of discovery and selfdiscovery. Artists curiosity is one of the best ways for society to recover its urge to dare to look, to explore the as yet unknown. The talks, which will take the form of conversations between artists, will begin with dialogues between Jordi Savall and Frederic Amat, followed by Marina Garcés and Santiago Auserón. In addition to conferences and family workshops, music will also be very present at CaixaForum Barcelona with a triple program for the general public, the family audience and the school public. Sounds, instruments and styles from all ages and from all over the world will resonate in a privileged space designed to enjoy music with the five senses. For the next months, we highlight proposals such as: 7

7 - The musical season will return in the fall with a selection of outstanding performers in all types of music; from classical to world music and proposals such as La consagración de la primavera, which will bring to the pianists Alexei Volodin and Edith Peña together with the illustrator Sagar Forniés who will create a live composition. - As usual at CaixaForum Barcelona, on weekends, regular performances will be offered for the family audience. In November, a new production of his own, That's a musical, will be released, which proposes a trip through the contemporary history of the American musical under the musical direction of Xavier Torras and the artistic direction of Xavier Erra. The cinema will also have its space in CaixaForum, including from cycles around exhibitions to children's animated films. Finally, family activities will enable the public of all ages to approach art in a playful and distinct way. In addition, CaixaForum Barcelona will be putting on a new range of activities for schoolchildren. Thanks to the educaixa programme, the centre was visited by 63,288 schoolchildren over the course of the last season. Families, as well as the elderly and cultural activities that have a social impact, will be present in a centre made available by la Caixa Foundation to audiences of every age and level of education. 8

8 PREVIEW OF THE CAIXAFORUM BARCELONA PROGRAMME FOR

9 Warhol. Mechanical Art From 14 September to 31 December 2017 Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, Collection of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh 2017 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / VEGAP la Caixa Foundation invites visitors to enter the creative world of Andy Warhol through almost 350 of his unmistakable works In collaboration with the Museo Picasso Málaga, la Caixa Foundation presents Warhol. Mechanical Art, a comprehensive and multifaceted exhibition that enables visitors to following the creative evolution of this iconic artist from his early days in New York City in the 1950s to his death in Warhol moved to New York in There he embarked on a successful career as a graphic designer for magazines, record labels and commercial brands, among them Glamour, Vogue, Columbia Records and Tiffany & Co. Not long after, he penetrated the world of art galleries, establishing himself as the Pop artist par excellence of the 1960s. He came to fame with his celebrated Campbell s Soup Can series and by transforming the film stars of the day, such as Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor and Elvis Presley, into icons of contemporary art. The exhibition features about 350 artworks and products of every kind designed and issued by the artist, and is supported by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London, as well as numerous other public institutions and private collections. The display includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, screen prints, installations, audio-visual pieces, artist s books, films, album covers, posters, magazines, objects and photographic and audio material, all giving visitors insights into the underground world that emerged in the second half of the 20th century in New York, when Warhol founded his legendary studio, the Factory. Curator: José Lebrero Stals, Artistic Director of the Museo Picasso Málaga Organisers: Exhibition organised by la Caixa Foundation and the Museo Picasso Málaga 10

10 Agon! Competition in Ancient Greece Frieze on a slab depicting the Greeks fighting against the Amazons (350 BC). Marble from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, today Bodrum (Turkey). From 23 November 2017 to 18 February 2018 This new exhibition, mounted in conjunction with the British Museum, gives us insights into Ancient Greece and features more than 170 exhibits, some of which are being shown outside London for the very first time The competitive spirit is an innate facet of human nature and was common in every sphere of ancient Greek society, which regarded it not as a manifestation of conflict or aggressiveness but as a positive and unifying urge. The exhibition Agon! Competition in Ancient Greece explores this central aspect of ancient Greek civilisation from a broad perspective, looking beyond competition in the realm of sports in events such as the Olympic Games and examining other areas such as politics, the theatre, war and mythology. Rivalry and competition in the realms of physical, intellectual and artistic development were inherent to Ancient Greek civilisation. Athletic prowess was encouraged from an early age and was an integral part of the education of children and their rite of passage into adulthood. Competitiveness pervaded every social class, from the richest to the poorest, and was evident in the conflicts in the political structure of the independent city states. In fact, democracy itself developed because the Greeks incorporated the techniques of competition into decision-making. The exhibition consists of a large selection of Greek objects in the British Museum s collections, among them refined and rare examples of armour, sculpture, jewellery, coinage and pottery. Among the items are a number of iconic pieces from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus that have never been shown outside London before. Curator: Peter Higgs, a specialist in ancient Greek sculpture and architecture at the British Museum Organisers: Exhibition organised by la Caixa Foundation with the collaboration of the British Museum 11

11 Music in antiquity From 9 February 2018 to 6 May 2018 Harpist ( BC). Terracotta. Eshnunna, Iraq. RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre), Franck Raux Music, a universal form of expression, stars in this joint project with the Louvre, which features almost 400 exhibits from great ancient civilisations Within the framework of the alliance between la Caixa Foundation and the Louvre, the partners, together with the Louvre-Lens museum, will be jointly presenting the first exhibition in Spain that looks at the latest research on music in ancient civilisations, from the Far East to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Music was present in every ancient society and has fulfilled a number of purposes throughout history. Performed by professional musicians or amateurs, music has accompanied human beings in every stage of their lives, from birth to death, and is present on battlefields and at the tables of the rich and powerful. It was incorporated into religious ceremonies and served as an intermediary between humans and their gods. Familiar to everyone and performed by many, music is becomes the central element in this exhibition and enables visitors to discover the social, political and religious context of lost civilisations. The display features some 400 works of a varied nature, some of which have never been shown in public before due to their fragility. The exhibits come from the collections of the Louvre and from around 20 international institutions, among them the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The exhibition also includes audio devices that will enable visitors to listen to reconstructions of the sounds of ancient instruments and to the oldest known singing in the world. Curators: Hélène Guichard, Violaine Jeammet and Ariane Thomas, curators at the Louvre, together with experts from a number of French institutions and universities Organisers: Exhibition co-organised by the Louvre, la Caixa Foundation and the Louvre-Lens museum 12

12 Disney. The Art of Storytelling From 22 March to 24 June 2018 Press Pack Brave Little Tailor (1938). Disney Enterprises Inc la Caixa Foundation invites visitors to embark on a thrilling journey through the fantastical world of Disney in the company of the studio s creations Ever since ancient times, the art of storytelling has played in important role in the history of humankind, be it through hieroglyphic writings or the work of bards, troubadours, ballad singers, poets, songwriters, novelists, filmmakers and other communicators. Many films produced by the Walt Disney Animation Studios are in keeping with the epic tradition of storytelling and are based on familiar myths, legends, fables and fairy tales. In transposing these classics into film, Walt Disney and the various creative teams that have followed after him have summed up versions of an eternal narrative, modernising them to make them more accessible and better suited to today s audience. The exhibition examines the literary origins of these narratives while at the same time exploring the reinterpretations produced by the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The display features an extensive collection of more than 200 pieces created using a wide range of techniques watercolour, charcoal, pastel, lithographic pencil, graffito, ink, tempera, acrylic and digital painting together with clips from a number of films, illustrating the creative path followed by Disney, all in an atmosphere in which visitors will be able to feel like they are the central characters of their own adventure. Curators: The curatorial team of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library Organisers: Exhibition organised by la Caixa Foundation and the Walt Disney Animation Research Library 13

13 Pharaoh. King of Egypt From 7 June to 16 September 2018 Seated statue of Pharaoh Seti II in quartzite sandstone. (c BC). Temple of Mut, Karnak, Thebes, Egypt. Trustees of the British Museum A fascinating journey through the world of the pharaohs at CaixaForum Barcelona, illustrated by works from the impressive holdings of the British Museum The pharaohs ruled Egypt from approximately 3100 BC until the Roman conquest. They were the representatives of the gods on Earth, they were responsible for keeping universal order, they protected Egypt from its enemies and they performed rituals to please the gods. The exhibition not only explores the symbolism and ideology of Egyptian royalty but also aims to reveal the realities behind these figureheads. The rulers were very diverse, men and more rarely women, who in some cases were not even of Egyptian origin. Whereas some rulers were revered, such as Amenhotep I, others were officially wiped from memory. Many of the ancient Egyptian objects that have survived present the image that the pharaoh wished his or her people to see, but this exhibition also looks at the circumstances and the challenges entailed by ruling Ancient Egypt. The exhibition consists of more than 150 pieces from the British Museum, among them vast statues, beautifully carved stone reliefs and items of gleaming gold jewellery, as well as unusual objects such as colourful inlays used to decorate the pharaoh s palace, diplomatic letters to Egypt s allies written on clay tablets, images of Persian, Greek and Roman rulers who acted as pharaohs, and even the wooden chest of one of the commanders of the king s troops. Curator: Marie Vandenbeusch, curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan of the British Museum Organisers: Exhibition organised by la Caixa Foundation in collaboration with the British Museum 14

14 Turbulence. Works from la Caixa Collection of Contemporary Art Press Pack From 19 July to 21 October 2018 Pablo Nazareth. Broken Flags (2014) The recent acquisitions of la Caixa Collection of Contemporary Art symbolically depict the social complexity in which we live Turbulence expresses the agitation and disturbances that give rise to the contradictions that disturb the daily experience of our social environment. The exhibition consists of pieces in la Caixa Collection of Contemporary Art by artists working in a number of registers and with a multiplicity of poetic voices, and who reflect critically on the world, its past and its present. These works though they might not convey disenchantment or nostalgia, or seek to provide solutions distil and symbolically depict the social complexity in which we live, kindling sensations that move us, as well as critical responses and an urge to resist. A conceptual vein of committed art established itself in la Caixa Collection more than ten years ago and it has grown ever since. This body of works reflects the diversity of interests, strategies and accounts in modern art today in a globalised world in which Eurocentrism is running out of steam and the conflicts of the world are no longer tackled from a single or dominant viewpoint. These are works that recount experiences of specific events in our era, expressed in inquisitive and critical tones, with the aim of examining reality and pointing to its fractures and even widening them still further to raise our awareness of everything around us. The exhibits include recently acquired works that have not as yet been shown in public, as well as others that are already well known and which between them reinforce the narrative of an art that expresses the social tensions of our world. Among the artists featured are Walid Raad, Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, Pablo Nazareth, Carlos Amorales, Bleda and Rosa, Juan Ugalde, Carlos Garaicoa, José Damasceno, Marco Poloni, Antoni Muntadas, Dionís Escorsa, Harun Farocki, Smadar Dreyfus and Willie Doherty. Curator: Nimfa Bisbe, Head of la Caixa Banking Foundation Art Collections Organiser: Exhibition organised by la Caixa Foundation 15

15 Comisart. New Looks at la Caixa Collection Series of exhibitions from 6 October 2017 to 30 September 2018 Gabriel Orozco, Altar of Windscreens with Bullet Hole (2009). la Caixa Contemporary Art Collection Courtesy of the artist and Kurimanzutto la Caixa Foundation once again opens its art collection to up-and-coming curators so that they can offer new readings of its holdings la Caixa Foundation presents the third edition of Comisart. New Looks at la Caixa Collection. The three exhibitions in the series, to be shown in Room 2 of CaixaForum Barcelona, are the result of the foundation s call for grant applications in order to promote up-and-coming curators in the field of contemporary art and to raise public awareness of young people setting out on their careers. Comisart offers young professionals the opportunity to curate a show based on the holdings in la Caixa Contemporary Art Collection and the MACBA Collection with the help of professionals from the foundation and external mentors. The programme is aimed at art curators who are under 40 years old and who have previously curated at least three exhibitions. The three successful applicants will develop specific exhibition projects based on the works available in the collections. These are innovative projects in terms of their readings and reflections on the holdings. In this, the third edition, the selected curators are Ángel Calvo, from Pontevedra, Alexandra Laudo, from Barcelona, and the duo consisting of Ada Sbriccoli, from Italy, and Arola Valls from Barcelona. Curators: H(a)unting Images: Anatomy of a Gunshot: Ada Sbriccoli and Arola Valls Under the Arm: Between the Palm of the Hand and the Armpit: Ángel Calvo You Are Not Here: Alexandra Laudo Organiser: Exhibition organised by la Caixa Foundation 16

16 la Caixa Foundation Public Relations Department Josué García: / / jgarcial@fundaciolacaixa.org Andrés Gimeno: / /agimeno@fundacionlacaixa.org la Caixa Foundation Multimedia Press Room