Cristina Iglesias
01 Feb - 31 Mar 2007
CRISTINA IGLESIAS
The Galería Elba Benítez presents the work of sculptor Cristina Iglesias (San Sebastián) for the first time at its exhibition space. The Gallery’s programme features an ongoing exploration into areas of artistic practice which enter into dialogue with other disciplines, as is the case here of sculpture and architecture. Consequently, this exhibition focuses on those projects by Cristina Iglesias, chosen from her extensive and wide-ranging output, specifically designed to be permanently housed inside previously constructed spaces.
Cristina Iglesias developed a highly individual voice in the European and American sculpture tradition of the 80’s and 90’s, sharing a certain theoretical framework with her fellow sculptors. In her sculpture no reference whatsoever is made to the human body, but rather to nature and landscape. Starting from texts evoking places, she builds performative spaces that tempt us to penetrate them, despite often being inaccessible. She confers special importance to the spectator, since her artworks require walking and active viewing. The light, another extremely important factor in her work, moulds the rich variety of her chosen materials, which include braided iron, copper, photography and alabaster, to mention a few.
Her individual spaces –such as her Celosías (Lattices/Jealousies), Pasajes (Passages) and Habitaciones Vegetales (Vegetable Rooms)– are inserted into already existing exhibition spaces. These artworks are designed to be explored by the spectator, and they exploit the interplay of light and shadow to confuse outer and inner space. This interplay of light has become a key factor of her oeuvre; in her suites of silkscreen prints on copper this interplay is provided by reflections which lead the spectator into a virtual space. This effect is further heightened in those artworks featuring text, now becoming an integral part of their structure as the light projects the words onto the walls and the floor. In this manner, Cristina Iglesias’ work transports us from a tangible world to an imaginary one, emphasizing the dichotomy between natural and artificial, real and virtual.
Cristina Iglesias was awarded the Spanish National Prize for Visual Arts in 2000. In 1993 she was chosen to represent Spain at its Pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennale. One-person shows of her work have been displayed at major art venues, such as the Guggenheim Museums in New York (1996) and in Bilbao (1998), at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1998), the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (2000), the Carré d’Art, Musée d'Art contemporain in Nîmes (2000), the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Oporto (2002), the Whitechapel Gallery in London (2003), and more recently at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne (2006).
The Cristina Iglesias exhibition at the Galería Elba Benítez breaks eight years of the artist’s apparent silence in Madrid, and it does so by focussing on projects which have in common the fact of being commissions for permanent installation in previously constructed spaces –both public and private– in which the spectator experiences the architectural and the sculptural as concurrent, connected spaces.
The Galería Elba Benítez presents the work of sculptor Cristina Iglesias (San Sebastián) for the first time at its exhibition space. The Gallery’s programme features an ongoing exploration into areas of artistic practice which enter into dialogue with other disciplines, as is the case here of sculpture and architecture. Consequently, this exhibition focuses on those projects by Cristina Iglesias, chosen from her extensive and wide-ranging output, specifically designed to be permanently housed inside previously constructed spaces.
Cristina Iglesias developed a highly individual voice in the European and American sculpture tradition of the 80’s and 90’s, sharing a certain theoretical framework with her fellow sculptors. In her sculpture no reference whatsoever is made to the human body, but rather to nature and landscape. Starting from texts evoking places, she builds performative spaces that tempt us to penetrate them, despite often being inaccessible. She confers special importance to the spectator, since her artworks require walking and active viewing. The light, another extremely important factor in her work, moulds the rich variety of her chosen materials, which include braided iron, copper, photography and alabaster, to mention a few.
Her individual spaces –such as her Celosías (Lattices/Jealousies), Pasajes (Passages) and Habitaciones Vegetales (Vegetable Rooms)– are inserted into already existing exhibition spaces. These artworks are designed to be explored by the spectator, and they exploit the interplay of light and shadow to confuse outer and inner space. This interplay of light has become a key factor of her oeuvre; in her suites of silkscreen prints on copper this interplay is provided by reflections which lead the spectator into a virtual space. This effect is further heightened in those artworks featuring text, now becoming an integral part of their structure as the light projects the words onto the walls and the floor. In this manner, Cristina Iglesias’ work transports us from a tangible world to an imaginary one, emphasizing the dichotomy between natural and artificial, real and virtual.
Cristina Iglesias was awarded the Spanish National Prize for Visual Arts in 2000. In 1993 she was chosen to represent Spain at its Pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennale. One-person shows of her work have been displayed at major art venues, such as the Guggenheim Museums in New York (1996) and in Bilbao (1998), at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (1998), the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (2000), the Carré d’Art, Musée d'Art contemporain in Nîmes (2000), the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Oporto (2002), the Whitechapel Gallery in London (2003), and more recently at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne (2006).
The Cristina Iglesias exhibition at the Galería Elba Benítez breaks eight years of the artist’s apparent silence in Madrid, and it does so by focussing on projects which have in common the fact of being commissions for permanent installation in previously constructed spaces –both public and private– in which the spectator experiences the architectural and the sculptural as concurrent, connected spaces.