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HELGA DE ALVEAR COLLECTION: AN EXHIBITION THAT MARKS A NEW STEP FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

As part of the inauguration of the Helga de Alvear Museum in the city of Cáceres, the new museum presents the exhibition Helga de Alvear Collection. Under the curatorship of José María Viñuela (Cáceres, 1944) —patron of the Helga de Alvear Foundation and curator of the collection of the same name— the exhibition consists of 150 artworks, selected from among the 3000 donated to the museum, and aims to define the vision and mission that the Spanish institution adopts with contemporary art.

The works on display include oeuvres by such seemingly disparate artists as Goya (Fuendetodos, 1746 - 1828, Bordeaux), Joseph Beuys (Krefeld, 1921 - Düsseldorf, 1986), Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957), Doris Salcedo (Bogotá, 1958) and Carlos Bunga (Porto, 1976), among others. And the novelty, rarely has a museum of this size (the museum has more than 3,000 m2 of exhibition space) exhibited such a contemporary body of work: more than half of the exhibition corresponds to artworks conceived in the last two decades.

Faux Rocks (2006), Katharina Grosse. Acrílico sobre poliuretano, Styrofoam y madera. Ph Joaquín Cortés / Helga de Alvear Museum

The exhibition can be divided into three main areas. Firstly, its international character. The artists whose work is on display come from 26 different countries. In this sense, and in the complicated context in which we find ourselves, the exhibition and the museum assume a commitment to the cosmopolitanism that characterises contemporary art: the blurring of national borders. Helga de Alvear Collection is presented to the visitor as a global representation of art, drawing bridges between the four corners of the world.

Secondly, the lack of definition that contemporary art has in relation to disciplines. The exhibition curated by Viñuela avoids homogeneity. On the four floors that make up the show, sculptures, large-scale installations, paintings, photographs, drawings and video installations coexist, thus composing a reliable image of the multiplicity of techniques and languages that make up the complex scenario of contemporary art.

Lastly, the notion of dialogue and intertextuality that the works themselves present within the exhibition as a whole. This is the only way to explain why Goya's Los Caprichos, for example, share a room with the artwork of artists such as Marcel Dzama (Winnipeg, 1974), Arnulf Rainero (Baden bei Wien, 1929) and Slater Bradley (San Francisco, 1975). In this way, the museum proposes to de-encrypt the language of art, offering viewers new ways of generating meaning.

Expand Constantly, (2000), Zhang Peili. Ph: Joaquín Cortés / Helga de Alvear Museum.
"Power tools", 2006, Thomas Hirscchorn.Ph: Joaquín Cortés / Helga de Alvear Museum.
"Descending light", 2007, Ai Weiwei. Ph: Luis Asín / Helga de Alvear Museum.
"Colección Helga de Alvear", vista de exposición. Ph: Joaquín Cortés / Helga de Alvear Museum.
"Echo Activity", 2017, Olafur Eliasson. Ph: Joaquín Cortés / Helga de Alvear Museum.

Artists included in the exhibition:

HELGA DE ALVEAR COLLECTION: AN EXHIBITION THAT MARKS A NEW STEP FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

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