Collection

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 INTERVENTION

The triptych, made up of three equal sections, has been part of the collection since 1996. It has been housed in different locations since it its creation in 1984, and its display at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1985. These relocations, together with the consequent changes in the environmental conditions that this entailed, have led to a series of alterations being carried out on the work.

A decision to intervene was taken as these alterations put the stability of the work at risk: visitors were not seeing the artwork correctly due to the aesthetic distortions.

STATE OF CONSERVATION

The three canvases, each mounted individually on a frame, have become loose and deformed. Some of the tacks used to attach the canvases are missing and have been replaced with staples which leads us to believe that the artwork has undergone previous interventions in order to restore it and to re-stretch the canvases. The lower sections of all three canvases have suffered severe deterioration, and two tears on one of the canvases have been treated in a previous intervention. In addition, the paint layer – delicate, by nature – has disintegrated and there is paint loss especially in areas close to the lower edge.

TREATMENT CARRIED OUT

Following an interview with the artist and following the prior analysis of the artwork, the support has been stabilised with reinforcement strips, patches have been applied, and the canvas has been correctly stretched; the deformations have also been specifically treated.

A dry method was used to remove surface dirt in order to avoid damaging the paint layer or changing its appearance. The preparatory and paint layers were stabilised by consolidating them, and then reintegrated both physically and chromatically.

The various steps of the intervention made it possible to better understand the nature of the artwork and analyse its specificities for any future conservation to be carried out correctly.

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.

On Monday 18 May we will be celebrating International Museum Day, with this year’s theme of “Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion”. Despite the fact that our doors are still closed, we will celebrate the importance of institutions like ours throughout the whole week on our social media.
 

We will begin by defending the essential role played by all the people who have continued working in the museum throughout the confinement: security and cleaning staff, who ensure that it is maintained in optimum conditions for the day when we are able to return. For many years now, we have been refocusing our collections so that the acquisitions we make respond to criteria of equality, for instance enhancing exhibitions by women artists who still do not enjoy the institutional recognition they deserve. Besides our commitment with gender inclusivity, we are also working to ensure the visibility and representation of all forms of life, expanding the LGTBIQ perspective in our programming and collection, but also introducing intersectional criteria that includes raciality: it is fundamental to focus on issues of racism and our own institutional role in its networks of exclusion, a task that is still a long way from being completed.
 

Here at CA2M, many unexpected situations take place in the encounter between visitors and the material culture preserved here. The exhibition halls are a place where we can meet strangers, but there is also a peculiar physical encounter between objects and people. We believe that life in the museum, to be completely inclusive, has to be aware that it is a space of coexistence, a place where the aesthetic experience enables us to recover the magical dimension of things and species.
 

In May 2007, the Mexican artist Damián Ortega installed Obelisco transportable in Doris C. Freedman Plaza in New York. This obelisk on wheels is a biting comment on the displacement of the centres in big cities and the stability of symbols of power in the city space. Today this obelisk is in Móstoles, lying prostrate in our storeroom. It could be raised to its feet (or wheels) any given day here in our own halls or could travel to some other place, to mark the spot of a new centre. The screens of our smartphones or laptops become our portable exhibition halls, places of power where discourses and reflections are directed, affecting our emotions and consciences or helping us to imagine a new representation of the world. The radical experience of the body’s relationship with everything else will still have to wait another few weeks, when we open our doors once again and brush the cobwebs off the exhibition on absurd humour in Spain. But this museum, CA2M, will continue latent like a sleeping portable obelisk.
 

Happy International Museum Day!

The world’s museum community has celebrated the International Museum Day on 18 May every year since 1977. This year’s theme is Hyperconnected Museums: New Approaches, New Publics.

We shall talk about pieces from our collection which we will see in different contexts: the storerooms they are kept in and in the exhibition galleries. The visits will be led by the artists Patricia Esquivias (morning) and Antonio Ballester-Moreno (evening), Olga García Caro and the museum’s education and conservation team who will all contribute their personal perspectives on the works.
 

Maximum of 20 people per group.