Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
dal 12/3/2014 al 18/10/2014
Segnalato da
12/3/2014
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Palacio de Cristal, Madrid
Splendide Hotel. The artist has explored the notion of space as a revealing medium, and of time as one of its closest allies. A new exercise that will attempt to revisit the 19thcentury context.
The projects of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
(Strasbourg, 1965) invite the visitor on a journey
through spaces and times where literature becomes
a habitual practice of inhabiting the world. The
artwork is redefined as a process beyond the
concrete significance of objects. Literature and
theatre constitute strategies for the configuration
of an imaginary where physical space is no more
than the tip of an iceberg traced out by the viewer
on both real and fictional coordinates.
From her first works of the mid-eighties to her
latest creations, the artist has explored the notion
of space as a revealing medium, and of time as one of
its closest allies. The characteristics of the Palacio
de Cristal offer Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster the
opportunity for a new exercise that will attempt to
revisit the 19thcentury context in which it was built.
1887 is the year when Ricardo Velázquez Bosco
built the greenhouse known today as the Palacio
de Cristal, or ‘Crystal Palace’. Its purpose was to
house an exhibition of plants and flowers from the
Philippines as part of the General Exposition of the
Philippine Islands, held that year.
In the same year, Rimbaud was in Aden, Yemen,
after the publication the previous year of his
Illuminations. In the first poem of this compilation
Après le Déluge, he gives life to the Splendide Hôtel:
“... Et le Splendide Hôtel fut bâti dans le chaos de
glaces et de nuit du pôle” (“... And the Splendide
Hôtel was built in the chaos of ice and night of the
Pole”).
Also inaugurated in 1887 was the Hotel Splendide in
Lugano, and the Splendide was furthermore the
name of the hotel in Évian-les-Bains where Proust
used to summer with his parents. Splendide Hotel is now also this hotel into which Dominique
Gonzalez-Foerster has temporarily transformed the
Palacio de Cristal in Retiro Park.
A large luminous sign on the main door announces
that the visitor is entering the new Splendide in Retiro Park, a hotel with just one impenetrable room
that replicates the original architecture of the building. The carpet covering the floor and the mystery
reigning inside evoke that distant period when the
Palacio was built. Around it are several rocking-chairs surrounded by books, inviting visitors to sit down and transport themselves to
the worlds hidden inside the literary selection
that the French artist has made for this occasion. Authors like the Philippine José Rizal,
Dostoyevsky, Rubén Darío, H.G. Wells and Vila-Matas become companions on the voyage in time that
Gonzalez-Foerster encourages us to share.
With the collaboration of the Institut Français
Press contact:
Concha Iglesias (+34) 91 7741005 / 06 prensa1@museoreinasofia.es - prensa2@museoreinasofia.es - prensa3@museoreinasofia.es
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Palacio de Cristal
Parque del Retiro, Madrid
Opening Hours
From April to September: Every day from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
From October to March: Every day from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.