Anyone interested

REASON FOR INTERVENTION

The sculpture under study is a metallic structure redolent of a truncated asymmetrical elevator.

The major concern was the deterioration of the asymmetrical structure caused primarily by its design, dimensions and the interplay of the different volumes and weights. This is further accentuated by the exhibition system, with its oblique inclination with respect to the wall and the fact that there are only two points of contact on which the work is supported.
 

STATE OF CONSERVATION

Some structural damage was observed in terms of deformation and damage to the material as well as active points of oxidation. The work was also affected by superficial damage in terms of accumulated dirt, environmental pollution, alteration of the layers of protection with whitish wax residues, losses, knocks and erosion.
 

TREATMENT UNDERTAKEN

After an initial cleaning of the whole sculpture, the deformations of the cross bracing were remedied.

Loose pieces were affixed with cold-welding using epoxy resins.

To strengthen the structure and provide the sculpture with greater stability, the system of anchoring the work was replaced and reinforced.

The treatment was concluded with the application of a final layer of protection.

REASON FOR INTERVENTION

When they were left on deposit in the Fundación Arco Collection at CA2M in 2014, conservation reports were drawn up on the works by Richard Serra, which are all individual pieces and not a triptych. It was immediately apparent that they all required restoration to prevent future problems in conservation.
 

The main reason for intervention was the noticeable damage, partly due to inadequate mounting. It is probable that when they were framed the oil had not completely dried, thus explaining why part of the paint had stuck to the perspex.
 

STATE OF CONSERVATION

The damage suffered was common to all the works: alterations in the layer of paint in terms of texture, lustre, surface dirt, damp stains on the bottom part, residue of oxidised adhesives, fingerprints on the white parts of the paper, and, more significantly, loss of adhesion between the layers of mounting (deformations, folds and blisters).
 

TREATMENT UNDERTAKEN

After dismounting the works, the surfaces were cleaned using soft brushes and gentle vacuuming. The stains were treated chemically or mechanically, depending on their origin. The adhesion between layers, blisters, were subject to different conservation criteria, given the delicacy of the operation. Some of them did not adversely affect the visual appearance of the work and did not pose a problem in terms of conservation so it was decided to only treat the most visible ones. The intervention was concluded with the chromatic and volumetric reintegration in damaged areas of the rigid support.

REASON FOR INTERVENTION

This work, a large format oil-on-canvas painting, was in need of restoration. As a consequence of a series of movements prior to entering the collection, the layer of paint had been adversely affected. Given the delicacy and the matte quality of the paint, the alterations were particularly visible and detracted from its appearance.
 

STATE OF CONSERVATION

Alterations in the support, deformations, damage to the layer of paint, surface dirt, fingerprints, erosion, losses of paint which reveal the underlying priming layer, and previous retouches which had altered the tone of the colour.
 

TREATMENT UNDERTAKEN

The intervention in the support consisted in eliminating the deformations caused by corner draws and loss of tension in the stretcher frame, with a risk of the linen fabric tearing in the corners. The original black perimeter tape was replaced wherever missing.
 

All stains were removed as far as possible and the layer of paint was reintegrated, which proved the most complex part of the process given the texture of the work.

REASON FOR INTERVENTION

This work, consisting of two elements, was made for the exhibition Una obra para un espacio, held at Canal de Isabel II in Madrid in 1987. Afterwards the two elements were stored separately in different locations, until the work was deposited in the collection.
 

The materials of which the work is made are most often the cause of alterations and/or deterioration. The reason for this intervention is the aging of the constituent materials, exasperated by exposure to inappropriate climatic factors at some period of time.
 

STATE OF CONSERVATION

The state of conservation of the two elements differed from one another. In the catalogue for the exhibition, the artist stated that he uses different kinds of material in making his works, perhaps insinuating that they would behave differently in the future, with the passing of time. The loss of patina and accumulated rust are the most notable alterations.
 

TREATMENT UNDERTAKEN

The aim of the restoration was to recover and unify the patina of the pieces. To this end, the elements were cleaned, after which a high percentage of the patina was uncovered. Inhibition of further corrosion was another main action.
 

The matte finish further underscores the different materials used, more saturated in the ‘A’ element than in the ‘K’.

REASON FOR THE REPAIRS

The sculpture consists of welded pieces taken from playground furniture. The top layer was painted by the artist.

The piece is part of a set created for the 9th Mercosul Biennial, Brazil, in 2013. It was later exhibited outdoors in Rio de Janeiro’s Botanical Garden. Then, it was moved to Spain, cut into fragments and welded back together upon arrival in order to be exhibited in the Sala Alcalá in 2019. Following the exhibition, it became a part of CA2M’s Collection and was kept on the rooftop for some time.

The material history of the piece, the various times it has been transported and exhibition conditions were considerations leading to its repair.

STATE OF CONSERVATION

Its state of conservation was fragile with damage to its structure caused by rusting that led to the loss of fragments and deformations, loss of metal welding and a weakening of the overall material. The pictorial layer also suffered damage due to dirt, stains, remains of adhesive tape, missing pieces and peeling layers of paint.

TREATMENT PERFORMED

The level of repairs to be carried out was agreed upon with the artist and with the institution, yet with the decision to leave some traces of the piece’s material history.
It was cleaned to remove dirt, remains of adhesive tape and peeling layers of paint. The areas affected by rust were stabilised and loose flakes of paint were fixed in place.
The support was secured with cold welding, fastening elements and structural reinforcements. This was followed by chromatic reintegration and the application of a coat of acrylic film to protect it from the elements.

FREE ENROLMENT

We invite you to bid farewell to 2019 with this exciting audiovisual event based on sound improvisation and projected images. Everything is brought together in an unreal Dada-like retrofuturist atmosphere combined with live experimentation by the multi-instrumentalist Severine Beata and the visual artist Beatriz Sánchez.

Together with Severine and Beatriz we will transform aluminium foil into thunder, pinecones into fire and tin cans into beats. Bring with you whatever you can find at home that we can use collectively to create a soundscape to accompany a series of visual games that arise from all kinds of gadgets: photos, objects, dolls, textures, engines...

Severine Beata is a multi-instrumentalist who experiments with the western concert flute, saxophone, synthesizer, drum machines, vocals... She is currently based in Andalusia, where she combines her work as a teacher with concerts and sound research.

Beatriz Sánchez is a drawing artist, performer, audiovisual creator and digital activist who works on many different levels, analysing the impact that heteronormative discourses and the information society have on us.

6:00 pm Screening of the film Las tres eras de la imagen
7:00 pm Presentation and conversation

3_Eras, the only text by José Luis Brea that had not been published until now, consists of a script which came about from the film version of the book Las tres eras de la imagen. The film by María Virginia Jaua and José Luis Brea includes sound and visual images, and the participation of the author and some philosophers like Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Rancière. It is an essayistic work in two senses: firstly, an essay of thought, written and spoken ideas; secondly, an essay on the form that these same elements take on the screen. This book and this film, to which the Spanish theorist dedicated the final years of his life, are also a tribute to his memory almost a decade after his passing.

The ideas and reflections that José Luis Brea developed are still valid today, and some of his ideas are surprisingly visionary. The result is a singular text within the theoretical output on visuality in Spanish, inviting us to adopt an emancipatory stance implicit in the act of the historical undertaking to recover what has remained latent as an unfulfilled promise; not because it is utopian or untimely, but because it is always on the verge of announcing its arrival, marking the yearned-for moment of a new starting point...

The project for this book came about thanks to the joint work of Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo from Móstoles and the Chilean publishers Metales Pesados. This conjunction of interests vouches for the importance that José Luis Brea’s work had and indeed continues to have for Spanish readers and the positive critical reception his books and thinking have enjoyed.

CA2M is carrying out a project to support the publication of previously unpublished theory and artist books in Madrid, and to this end it is collaborating with different publishing houses.

ENROLMENT COMPLETED

Moderated by Eva Garrido and Marta van Tartwijk

We avoid touching, fluids and drops of saliva. We cover our mouth, our nose and hands. Our reading group over the last few years has explored the oddities of the body and queer bodies. Now that reality is like science fiction, we will turn our attention to the aliens, vampires and bearded women which we have met along the way.

Last year, Birds Fuck in the Air endeavoured to address and think about the different textures of desire and its strange manifestations. Given the unforeseen imposition of the prohibition of touching, a distance was established that nonetheless could perhaps increase the idea of eroticism. And how lovers start to write to each other. We write a lot. Even distances become elastic and we can feel something touching us, that words and tongues walk all over us.

The task of writing, like desire, is perhaps always an unfinished task. One writes to continue writing. The stroller, by definition, is not going anywhere in particular, but is driven by the mere desire to walk. Going nowhere in order to maybe eventually arrive somewhere.

Among our desires as a group, this year we wish to recover one, to read a single book. Perhaps it is the right moment to think together about distances and the potential of strolling. This motor action of putting one step forward and then the other, to take our bodies to different places, opens up a horizon of possibilities and readings to discover the world through the body and the body through the world.

Imparted by: Marta van Tartwijk.

Manuel Polo and Jesús Macías are the stars of Todo lo contrario. These ninety-somethings are what you could call film buffs, although unknowingly, because they would never think in those terms, but they use scenes from films to show us what they are thinking or they flesh out ordinary memories with movie memories. They lived during that time and in that world when cinema, the only art form that has been genuinely popular, had an all-pervasive presence; you worked, ate, slept, went to the cinema, just one more thing in the everyday flow of life. This programme came about from a meeting between them and a voluntary film buff, someone who started out at the end of that time and of that world.

Following many conversations and films that the involuntary and voluntary film buffs mentioned and noted, respectively, it was whittled down to six. Manolo’s and Jesús’s tastes are filtered through another taste. Six examples of the talent accumulated in Hollywood during the golden age of the big studios. Six seminal movies, six true works of art and sources of aesthetic (and ethical) pleasure. Six ethical and (aesthetic) hypotheses whose characters mutate, with the torment and pain and excitement of change; they find out who they are and discover their inner desires through chance meetings, reunions, disagreements. And Manolo and Jesús, who saw them, perhaps get to discover something about themselves and about others through them, recognising themselves in them. And perhaps we will too.

The titles already give us a clue to the (dramatic) weight that falls on women, dealing with their adventures and their freedom. After Captains Courageous we could ask ourselves “How can you grow up without losing your childhood?” and answer, thanks to It Happened One Night and The Awful Truth, “by letting fantasies of love lead to companionship, seriousness to improvisation, humour and fun”. But you can still hear a voice saying: “Yes, ok, but… What happens if we are women light years away from the standard, or if certain relationships place us in danger?” That’s where the queen, the pirate and the voyager have something to say.

Passing on this experience, at once intimate and shared, digging up those dead who are still very much alive in the minds of non-experts, helps to understand the overwhelming influence and presence of cinema, when it offered an opportunity for sentient learning every day, a gift for the eyes everyday for everyone. Every week, Jesús, a hairdresser since he was practically a boy, would go through the programme and choose the movies he was going to see, without bothering to take into account how near or how far away the cinema was from his home-hairdresser’s: “Whether it was in Tetuán or Vallecas, it didn’t matter, I went anyway. All cinemas were for me”.

(silence) – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – (silence) – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – (silence) – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – (silence) – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – WE– ARE – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – THE– CHOIR – HEL – LO – CHOIR –HEL – LO– CHOIR – HEL – THE – CHOIR – HEL – THE – CHOIR – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR– WE– ARE – THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR –
 

An amateur choir is a creative project in which all types of voices are welcome. The choir doesn’t just sing songs but aspires to embrace all the sounds in the world. That’s why it sings through silence, mumbling and stuttering and with sounds that sometimes involuntarily escape the body like laughter and screams..
 

During confinement we managed to counter our fears by singing to and with each other over the phone. We find melodies in the washing machine, stories through the window and a new language of gargling and birdsong. Now we are really looking forward to seeing each other in person once again and finally going together to Zarzalejo to sing with the choir of the artist Amalia Fernández.