We are back again to explore what’s new in the world of art and culture. This November we dive into events and exhibitions that invite you to enjoy the cultural richness the world has to offer.
Reminiscent of Hergé’s art, Bassins des Lumières hosts the immersive exhibition of the young reporter Tintin, along with his allies and his sidekick Snowy. The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza hosts the exhibition Liquid Intelligence, where art and sustainability come together to raise awareness. The artist Joana Vasconcelos is presented at the MAAT museum with travels and new pieces of art, while the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres brings back El Crist. On the other hand, Marta Ortega brings fashion and photography together through Helmut Newton. This year Loop Barcelona is celebrating its 21st edition, and the MoMA is championing sustainability through the Emerging Ecologies exhibition , a must-see in November’s art and culture highlights.
Loop Barcelona explores art, nature and social reflection
This year, LOOP Barcelona celebrates its 21st edition, divided as always between LOOP Fair and LOOP Festival. On this occasion, Loop Fair focuses on the links between the symbolic world and the conception of nature. As well as delving into the essence of time and memory. However, the fair is not limited to the abstract, as some works also deal with themes related to protests and political conflicts, offering an artistic perspective that invites social reflection.
Image of Desaparecidas by artist Mayra Martell
As for the Festival, it offers an extensive and varied programme that includes twenty exhibitions, screenings, performances and conversations, distributed in different parts of the city of Barcelona. The projects on display include themes such as the crisis of our ecosystems and the transformation of urban and rural spaces. In addition, the impact of technologies on our daily lives, often harmful, is analysed.
When? Loop Fair from 21 to 23 November 2023. Loop Festival from 14 to 24 November 2023.
Where: Barcelona
Time: Loop Fair Wednesday and Thursday from 16.00h to 20.30h.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here
An immersive adventure with Tintin and Snowy
After the great success of Tintin. l’aventure immersive at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris in 2022 and its exhibition at the Carrières des Lumières in 2023, it now lands at Bassins des Lumières. From the first edition of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets in 1929 to his most recent publications, the exhibition pays a moving tribute to the iconic reporter who has captivated the public alongside his friend Snowy. The exhibition covers an area of 1,400 square metres with huge walls illuminated by illustrations from the world of Tintin.
The immersion is accompanied by a soundtrack specially selected to reflect Hergé ‘s own musical tastes as he brought his works to life. The thirteen selected songs can be listened to via Spotify under the name of the exhibition itself. Throughout the 24 adventures, Tintin is in trouble and his group of allies made up of Captain Haddock, the twins Hernandez and Fernandez, Professor Tornasol, Castafiore and others, come to life to help him. Not forgetting, of course, that villains such as Rastapopoulos and Allan Thompson are always present to make the missions to be solved more difficult.
When will it take place? From 20 October 2023 to 7 January 2024.
Where: Imp. Brown de Colstoun, Bordeaux, France.
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 10.00h to 20.00h.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here.
Building a green future through architecture
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has opened its doors to the exhibition Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism, which sheds light on the relationship between architecture and the environmental movement in the United States. The exhibition presents six decades of innovation in architectural design, presenting how American architects responded to the environmental crisis in the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition is divided into five sections: Environment as Information, Environmental Enclosures, Multispecies Design, Counterculture Experiments and Green Poetics. A wide range of 150 works, from archival drawings to architectural models and videos, can be enjoyed throughout the exhibition. It also honours key figures in this movement, such as R. Buckminster Fuller and Emilio Ambasz.
Building green cities is the best possible goal for the future of the planet. For this reason, projects such as floating cities, ecological and less harmful constructions, are currently being designed.
Some of the highlights of the exhibition are Buckminster Fuller’s images of his World Game project, which was never realised at the 1967 Expo in Canada, and his iconic dome over Manhattan. Also on display are Ant Farm’s Dolphin Embassy and a model of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Falling Water, along with Eugene Tsui‘s alternative cityscapes. Urbanism and the creation of cities have been taking space away from nature, and this is hurting us too much, so it is important to start putting the Earth’s green spaces back in their place.
When will it happen? From 17 September 2023 to 20 January 2024.
Where: 11 W 53rd St, New York, USA
Hours: Sunday to Friday from 10.30am to 5.30pm. Saturdays from 10.30am to 7pm.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here
Exploring the ocean through art
The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza hosts the exhibition Liquid Intelligence, where we immerse ourselves in the enigmatic ocean and its diverse ecosystems, highlighting the more than a decade of efforts of the TBA21 Foundation in ecological projects. Furthermore, they expose the main idea that art and culture can trigger significant social and environmental changes. The exhibition brings together works by eight international artists, some from the TBA21 Collection, two new productions by the Foundation and three installations created for the occasion.
The installation Ziggy and the Starfish, by artist Ann Duk Hee Jordan.
The exhibition programme mentions that the artists do not work alone. Scientists, curators, activists and others collaborate with them. This immersion implies an openness of imagination and a renewed sense of admiration for the complexity of nature. Through the exhibition, the aim is to stop thinking of the ocean as a medium that provides life, but as an organism with its own intelligence and consciousness, distinct from our own. Throughout the tour, one can observe the coexistence that is created underwater, in a natural way, and how erratic artificial intelligence, created by humans, can be. In this way, the exhibition is a window to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the oceans, one of the key elements in maintaining our planet.
When will the exhibition take place? From 10 October 2023 to 28 January 2024.
Where? P.º del Prado, 8, Madrid, Spain.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00h to 19.00h. Monday from 12.00h to 16.00h.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here.
Joana Vasconcelos and her electrifying exhibition at MAAT
In October Waddesdon Manor finished exhibiting the sculpture Wedding Cake by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. She leaves the UK behind, and returns to Lisbon, as she is now present at the MAAT museum with her new exhibition Plug-in. Through it you can enjoy pieces produced by the artist since 2000, as well as new ones such as Tree of Life. In addition, works from the EDP Foundation Art Collection are included, establishing a dialogue between the heritage of electricity, technology and the visual arts. In the MAAT Gallery area, a total of seven works can be enjoyed, including Drag Race (2023), which connects with War Games ( 2011), where two cars are transformed into works of art: one adorned with golden feathers, and the other covered with toy rifles and stuffed animals.
The piece Valkyrie Octopus, which arrived from Asia, is on display in the Oval Gallery of MAAT.
On the other hand, for the first time in Lisbon, two pieces that were at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao are presented:the mirror mask, I’ll Be Your Mirror (2019) and the giant solitaire ring (2018), which is installed outside the museum. From Asia comes the textile sculpture Valkyrie Octopus, and recalling his first pieces connected to electricity is Strangers in the night, designed 23 years ago.
When will it take place? From 29 September 2023 to 31 March 2024.
Where? Av. Brasília, 1300-598 Lisbon, Portugal.
Opening hours: Wednesday to Monday from 10.00h to 19.00h.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here.
Salvador Dalí: The Return of El Crist
Salvador Dalí‘s mystical painting El Crist travels from Glasgow to the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, a work that had not been seen in the country since its exhibition in Madrid and Barcelona in 1952. For the first time at the Teatre-Museu, the area of the Loggias in the Torre Galatea, Dalí’s last residence, has been fitted out to house the exhibition, which focuses on the painting and the creative process behind it. The exhibition allows us to immerse ourselves in the artist’s universe through drawings, sketches and archive material, as well as exploring the relevance of his workshop in the bay of Portlligat (Cadaqués).
Salvador Dalí paints El Crist al taller de Portlligat, 1951, Ricardo Sans Condeminas.
The Catalan painter painted El Crist in 1951 as the close of a period of transformation and his desire to become a classic. Thus, the introduction of religious figures was the result of the back-and-forth of his thoughts. Looking at the work, we see that Christ is crucified, but there is no blood or thorns. Even so, it conveys solitude and sacrifice in fighting for the good of humanity, a personal reflection of Dalí at the time, as his revolutionary past and his mystical present came together.
When will it take place? From 1 November 2023 to 30 April 2024.
Where? Plaça Gala i Salvador Dalí, 5, Figueres, Girona.
Opening times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10.30am to 5.15pm. Mondays closed.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here.
The legacy of Helmut Newton through his camera
Finishing off the art and culture highlights, this November the MOP Centre becomes the epicentre of an impressive exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the legendary German-Australian photographer Helmut Newton. Following in the footsteps of the successful exhibitions dedicated to Peter Lindbergh and Steven Meisel, the new exhibition Helmut Newton – Fact & Fiction will be curated by Philippe Garner, Matthias Harder and Tim Jefferies. The exhibition will be dedicated to his six-decade career, as he earned recognition as one of the world’s most influential photographers. In addition, it will also include personal images, uncovering his most private side; when he was a child or his relationship with his wife June.
Helmut Newton, Grand Hôtel du Cap, Marie Claire, Antibes, 1972 © Helmut Newton Foundation
The selection of fashion photographs in the exhibition reflects the visual language that characterised the photographer, including his iconic Great Nudes and portraits of personalities such as Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Margaret Thatcher and Yves Saint Laurent, among others. In addition to his renowned images, the exhibition will also showcase lesser-known works by Newton. Places such as Paris, Monaco, Vienna and Los Angeles influenced Helmut’s creations, capturing the essence of each territory, and each capture will be on display at the exhibition.
When will it run? From 18 November 2023 to 1 May 2024.
Where? Canton Grande, 4, A Coruña, Spain.
Free admission.
Images courtesy of the brands mentioned.
