Joana Vasconcelos
I’ll Be Your Mirror
29 Jun - 11 Nov 2018
Joana Vasconcelos
Marilyn (AP), 2011
Stainless steel pans and lids, and concrete
Two pieces, 297 x 155 x 410 cm
Collection of the artist
Work produced with the support of Silampos, S.A.
© Joana Vasconcelos, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2017
Marilyn (AP), 2011
Stainless steel pans and lids, and concrete
Two pieces, 297 x 155 x 410 cm
Collection of the artist
Work produced with the support of Silampos, S.A.
© Joana Vasconcelos, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2017
JOANA VASCONCELOS.
I’ll Be Your Mirror
29 June – 11 November 2018
Curators: Petra Joos and Enrique Juncosa
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the first exhibition in Spain to be devoted to Joana Vasconcelos, without doubt the most internationally reputed Portuguese artist (although born in Paris in 1971) of her generation especially after her participation in the 2005 Venice Biennale and her major exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in 2010. Joana Vasconcelos. I’m Your Mirror, whose title is a tribute to Nico, the celebrated German vocalist who sang I’ll Be Your Mirror with the New York band The Velvet Underground, is a retrospective featuring some thirty pieces produced between 1997 and the present day. Some of the selected worksaare among the best known of her career, such as Burka (2002) and The Bride (2001–05), while others are more recent or have been created specially for this occasion, like the monumental Egeria (2018), installed in the Atrium. Two giant sculptures, Pop Rooster (2016) and Solitaire (2018), have also been set up outside the Museum.
Vasconcelos’s production contains references both to the popular culture of her country (appropriating the rooster of Barcelos, the heart of Viana do Castelo, and the ceramics of Bordalo Pinheiro) and to the most recent theoretical debates in contemporary art, especially those concerned with fostering viewer participation in the interpretation of artworks. The artist uses many materials from everyday life, such as household appliances, wall tiles, fabrics, medicines, urinals, pans, and plastic cutlery, exploiting the narrative and emotional charge they hold or release. Her sculptures, usually large-format works that sometimes have movement, sound, or lights are characterized by their chromatic richness and their exuberance. With an attractive sense of humor that shuns dogmatism, her work also explores issues of identity ranging from very intimate questions to universal sociopolitical themes linked to globalized postcolonial societies, such as migration or the exploitation of women.
Egeria, 2018
- Through the construction of light-hearted yet strikingly direct images that refer to socio-political issues relevant to post-colonial, globalized and consumerist societies, Joana Vasconcelos addresses topics ranging from immigration to gender violence.
- Like an alchemist of daily life, the artist transforms the everyday objects and clichés of the consumer society into open artworks laden with meaning.
- The exhibition includes previously unseen works like I’ll Be Your Mirror, an enormous Venetian mask formed by mirrors framed in bronze, and Solitaire, a gigantic engagement ring made from the wheelrims of luxury cars and glass whisky tumblers, thus combining some of the most stereotyped symbols of masculine and feminine desire.
- Egeria, a work which spreads through the Atrium of the Museum like a plant made of different fabrics, colors and textures, constitutes a metaphor for the occupation of museums by women.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the exhibition Joana Vasconcelos. I’m Your Mirror, a selection of thirty works produced between 1997 and the present day by the most internationally reputed Portuguese artist, including a site-specific installation for the Atrium of the Museum and various other new works. In this show, sponsored by Seguros Bilbao, viewers can submerge themselves completely in the universe of an artist with a direct and humorous vision of the world, whose work explains many of our society’s contradictions without any apparent effort.
I’ll Be Your Mirror
29 June – 11 November 2018
Curators: Petra Joos and Enrique Juncosa
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the first exhibition in Spain to be devoted to Joana Vasconcelos, without doubt the most internationally reputed Portuguese artist (although born in Paris in 1971) of her generation especially after her participation in the 2005 Venice Biennale and her major exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in 2010. Joana Vasconcelos. I’m Your Mirror, whose title is a tribute to Nico, the celebrated German vocalist who sang I’ll Be Your Mirror with the New York band The Velvet Underground, is a retrospective featuring some thirty pieces produced between 1997 and the present day. Some of the selected worksaare among the best known of her career, such as Burka (2002) and The Bride (2001–05), while others are more recent or have been created specially for this occasion, like the monumental Egeria (2018), installed in the Atrium. Two giant sculptures, Pop Rooster (2016) and Solitaire (2018), have also been set up outside the Museum.
Vasconcelos’s production contains references both to the popular culture of her country (appropriating the rooster of Barcelos, the heart of Viana do Castelo, and the ceramics of Bordalo Pinheiro) and to the most recent theoretical debates in contemporary art, especially those concerned with fostering viewer participation in the interpretation of artworks. The artist uses many materials from everyday life, such as household appliances, wall tiles, fabrics, medicines, urinals, pans, and plastic cutlery, exploiting the narrative and emotional charge they hold or release. Her sculptures, usually large-format works that sometimes have movement, sound, or lights are characterized by their chromatic richness and their exuberance. With an attractive sense of humor that shuns dogmatism, her work also explores issues of identity ranging from very intimate questions to universal sociopolitical themes linked to globalized postcolonial societies, such as migration or the exploitation of women.
Egeria, 2018
- Through the construction of light-hearted yet strikingly direct images that refer to socio-political issues relevant to post-colonial, globalized and consumerist societies, Joana Vasconcelos addresses topics ranging from immigration to gender violence.
- Like an alchemist of daily life, the artist transforms the everyday objects and clichés of the consumer society into open artworks laden with meaning.
- The exhibition includes previously unseen works like I’ll Be Your Mirror, an enormous Venetian mask formed by mirrors framed in bronze, and Solitaire, a gigantic engagement ring made from the wheelrims of luxury cars and glass whisky tumblers, thus combining some of the most stereotyped symbols of masculine and feminine desire.
- Egeria, a work which spreads through the Atrium of the Museum like a plant made of different fabrics, colors and textures, constitutes a metaphor for the occupation of museums by women.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents the exhibition Joana Vasconcelos. I’m Your Mirror, a selection of thirty works produced between 1997 and the present day by the most internationally reputed Portuguese artist, including a site-specific installation for the Atrium of the Museum and various other new works. In this show, sponsored by Seguros Bilbao, viewers can submerge themselves completely in the universe of an artist with a direct and humorous vision of the world, whose work explains many of our society’s contradictions without any apparent effort.