La Reina Sofia

La Reina Sofia houses the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Madrid. It regularly hosts large international exhibitions. It has an extensive permanent collection of works covering the last century including numerous by Dali and Picasso, including the world famous Guernica, which was previously held in Museo Del Prado, but later moved to La Reina Sofia along with all other works from post 1920. The building is a combination of 18^th century Spanish architecture, and a modern 1980’s extension. I think the combination of styles really adds to the atmosphere of the building. The old building was previously a hospital and the space makes an amazing exhibition space, with an abundance of natural light. The extension is a large steel and glass construction with a large 4^th floor mezzanine looking out over the city, and down to the museum entrance.

The current exhibition held is of works by the post modernist Artist Hans Peter Feldman. He works largely with repetition, using archiving and re-representation to create his scenarios. One of his works displayed consisted of hundreds of front pages from news papers across the world on September 12^th 2001. The work creates and interesting historical documentation of global reactions to the event, ranging from headlines like “declaration of war” to (ironically) a Spanish news paper where the headline is “jugar sin mierdo” (to play without fear) referring to a Barcelona football match, then with tiny thumb nail picture if the twin towers!

My favorite Feldman work is called ‘shaddowplay’ and is an elegant montage of shadows projected onto the gallery wall. The work consists of a seemingly random objects such as; a gun, Bambi, the Statue of Liberty, Barbie, a palm tree, a sailing boat, a helicopter,and a Tyrannosaurus rex. These symbolic and familiar objects are placed on a revolving trays, this turns the shadows into a revolving clockwork reference to life and contemporary culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqAjPJlbMJ4




The simple shaddows create a cartoon-esque effect, it seems like the simple shapes and images are creating a simplified sumary of a busy image obsessed society. I also like how the artist hasnt tried to cover up the obects and making of the work. and hasn't bothered staging it with plinths etc, covering up wires, it looks kind of hap hazzard, or a work in progress, as the tables also have random bottles and gloves for example which arent actually part of the 'shaddow play' which enrich the sense of experimenting and temporality of the work.