Cultural calendars are full of events and art exhibitions. But, now, we are leaving behind the festivals that have accompanied us this summer, to look for art inside emblematic buildings.
The city of Barcelona hosts the Loop Barcelona festival, while Miguel Chevalier is part of the exhibition Les Choses- Une historie de la nature morte at the Louvre. The essence of surrealism in every branch of art is present in The Design Museum, and, on the other hand, Bassins des Lumières makes visitors leave the Earth, leaping into space. Carrie Mae Weems has brought her video installation Lincoln, Lonnie, and Meto the MACBA. Meanwhile, the figure of Yves Saint Laurent continues to remind us that everything that glittered turned to gold. Finally, the emblematic Louis Vuitton boxes arrive in New York. So, let’s discover the 7 art and culture highlights for November 2022.
Across the infinite universe
The infinite universe is presented within the walls of Bassins des Lumières with the exhibition Destination Cosmos, l’ultime défi. Leaving the Earth behind, the constellations illuminate the darkness, revealing the mythological figures that reign in them. Visitors embark on an immersive journey through the planets of the solar system. Passing through nebulae and supernovae, as well as observing the stars that surround us. Our sun being the central one.
The exhibition takes visitors beyond the atmosphere and into the universe. On the other hand, by getting to know what is outside our earth, making the experience as real as possible. © Culturespaces / Vincent Pinson
Thanks to the images captured by NASA, ESA and CNES, the walls of the installation allow real entry into those territories that only the robots sent there have been able to touch. Penetrating the red earths of Mars, its reliefs and mountains, and then jumping to the immense Jupiter and Saturn. And out of the solar system it flies over Uranus and Neptune.
Mars, the red planet, where different robots have arrived to search its soil and analyse it. To later imagine how we would live if we arrived in the future. © Culturespaces / Vincent Pinson
During the tour, the visitors gradually leave home. From our Milky Way. One more of the millions that surround us, a cluster of galaxies to be discovered that become points of light. We move away and the darkness returns, to reappear with the astronauts and the Earth in the background. After this scientific and mythological adventure, it makes us reflect that we humans are a speck of dust. Just a speck of dust in an infinite universe.
When? From 21 October to 19 November 2022
Where? Imp. Brown de Colstoun, Bordeaux, France
Opening times: Monday to Saturday from 5.15pm to 9.30pm
Tickets: You can buy tickets here
Loop Barcelona 2022 connects to time
We continue with the magic of art through screens with Loop Barcelona. For this new edition, the symbology of time is the main element in the exhibitions. Under the slogan, While time passes, the Loop Festival will explore how time traps us on a chronological level. How society adapts to it, being an omnipresent element, and not the other way around. Running after it, losing time looking for it, and finally disappearing, because we cannot turn back.
Sand Walk, a work by Natalia Carminati and José Carlos Flórez. Through technologies, nature, its annotation, flow and synchronicity are explored.
As every year, the festival, the artists and their works enter different centres to show their creativity. From the Museu Picasso or Fundació Antoni Tàpies to the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. Showing how time passes before the eyes with a simple blink of an eye, with the work Criminal Immersion by Natalia Lucía and Gabriel Millán. Or connecting past, present and future with the virtual reality video installation Uxuwell by Pedro Torres. Linking memory, time and future territories.
Pedro Torres’ Uxuwell transits between the virtual and the real. Representing places such as the volcanic area of Jokulsárlón in Iceland, and its geological changes.
As for the fair, after being held last year at La Pedrera-Casa Milà, this year it returns to its origins, being hosted at the Almanac Barcelona hotel. And, once again, with a great international jury made up of Elvira Dyangani Ose, Dirk Snauwaert, Benjamin Weil and Daniela Zyman. Visitors will find 43 works, where the power of video to transmit reflection and criticism will be reflected in them. The creativity of the artists gives results that will make your skin crawl;
Four Ballards for my Father also reflects the reality of many areas where oil production empowers states to become more powerful.
For example, through the artist Amie Barouch, and her work The Lost Dog, it will allow us to reflect on how minorities are left aside and somewhat ignored. During the short film, the day-to-day life of those who do not have many resources is reflected. Being lost in a very conventional society. On the other hand, Cemile Sahin reconstructs the search for that father who was separated from his family through Four Ballads for my Father..
When?:Loop Fair: 15 to 17 November. Loop Festival from 8 to 20 November
200 boots full of imagination thanks to Louis Vuitton
Last year, in memory of the French designer Louis Vuitton, and his bicentenary, the exhibition Louis Vuitton: 200 trunks, 200 visionaries. From its debut at the family-run Vuitton, via Singapore and Los Angeles, it is now coming to New York. The New York City that hosts millions of events and millions of visitors who enjoy them. Two hundred personalities from the arts and culture are involved in the personalised creation of dream trunks, on this occasion occupying the iconic Barney’s New York building.
Among the participants who have been collaborating are Fornasetti, BTS and Pat McGrath. For this new stop in New York, Francesca Sorrenti, Willo Perron or Francky Zapata are some of the artists who recreate boots exclusively in the city. There are also many fashion designers included to personalise the chests with the dimensions used by Louis in 1850. From Nigo and Samuel Ross to Marc Jacobs, the latter covering his boot with the monogram that Stephen Sprouse created for Vuitton.
Throughout the long exhibition inside Barney’s New York, there are individual and collaborative spaces where various artists share their creations.
In this way, Louis Vuitton brings together reference personalities in art and culture. Bringing together emblematic houses with breaking personalities, influencers of the essence of Vuitton and learning from each other. All leaving their mark. An exhibition that never stops travelling, inviting visitors to let their imagination flow;
When:From 14 October to 31 December 2022.
Where? 660 Madison Avenue, New York
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
For a future full of hope while remembering the past
Art, which at first glance may or may not beautify the view, watches with charm that which is captured in front of it. But it is still one of the best ways to send messages of protest and appeals. Bringing to light injustices and truths to reflect on them. On this occasion, the American artist Carrie Mae Weems has taken her video installation Lincoln, Lonnie, and Meto the MACBA. Connecting President Abraham Lincoln and activist Lonnie Graham, and he believes it is necessary to reflect on the complex past and the hopeful future.
Like a play, surrounded by darkness because the curtain opens and the performance begins. A quiet atmosphere where visitors can easily capture your attention. Photo: Miquel Coll
From a chronological approach, Weems develops a narrative where gender, race, class, history and their representation is paramount. For, in this way he calls for a reciprocal gaze, connecting past and present, and arriving at an equality;
Despite the variety of my explorations, I have always maintained that my responsibility as an artist is to work, to earn a living, to create art, beautiful and powerful, to contribute and to reveal. To beautify the disorder of a troubled world, to heal the sick and feed the defenceless; to shout bravely from the rooftops and break through imposed barriers to express with clarity the key circumstances of our historical moment;
The exhibition has been created to transmit an important message without the need to use many elements, just using something as simple as the images reproduced. Photo: Miquel Coll
With the appearance of phantasmagorical figures on a human scale, visitors can observe some of the artist’s most influential photographs. Looking for the context to be shown in them, the problems between people due to physical or social differences. Something that happened in the past and unfortunately still happens. These bad actions of repeating what happened years ago, without learning too much from the mistakes. Even so, Carrie Mae Weems continues to believe that hope is the last thing to be lost.
When: 5 October to 15 January 2023
Where: Plaça dels Àngels, 1, Barcelona Plaça dels Àngels, 1, Barcelona
Timetable: Monday to Friday from 11.00h to 19.30h. Saturday from 10.00h to 20.00h. Sunday from 10.00h to 15.00h. Tuesday closed
Tickets: You can buy tickets here
The still life that finally represents life
This autumn we can enjoy the participation of the artist Miguel Chevalier in different exhibitions. One of them takes us to the Louvre, in Paris, to see Herbarius, his virtual installation that is part of the exhibition Les Choses- Une historie de la nature morte. The work is in the form of a book; twelve large pages where the evolution of flowers is projected. Highlighting the hybrid forms, connecting the traditional roots with the technologies that surround us.
In addition to Chevalier, the exhibition features a wide range of artists such as Manet, Nan Goldin, Miró and De Chirico, and their works. Wanting to represent the evolution of thought as well as everyday life then and now. More than 170 works are divided into 15 sections ranging from prehistoric antiquity to the 21st century. Representing, from the beginnings of social groups, how they left marks on reliefs or tables of what they considered important.
Analysing from a broad perspective, they have chosen to look at the earliest times as well as the developments with new technologies
On the other hand, visitors can observe and get to know a new vision of still life, both in terms of its broad geographical, chronological and artistic limits. Giving shape to fears, beliefs, desires and dreams. Seeing how Goya captured death and fragility through the flesh of the lamb. Symbolising the end of life. Moreover, how in the interwar period the objects of the still lifes were isolated within the representation;
When: 12 October to 23 January 2023
Where: Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France
Opening hours: Saturday to Thursday from 09.00h to 18.00h. Friday from 9am to 9.45pm. Closed on Tuesdays
Tickets: You can buy tickets here
The essence of everyday life is also transformed into art and culture.
For the first time, in a major exhibition in the United Kingdom, Surrealism takes its place and relates it to the world of design. Reflecting on the fact that it not only revolutionised art, but also fashion, cinema, photography and interiors. The The Design Museumhas been commissioned to bring it to the streets of London with Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924-Today. In this way, the exhibition covers almost 100 years and presents around 350 objects, divided into four sections.
Furniture designs that were very strange and out of place for the time. In addition to the use of leg and arm forms, using them for support. Photo: Andy Stagg
Starting with the 1920s, when artists such as Dalí, Magritte, Meret Oppenheim and Man Ray experimented with creating objects using different materials. They worked with elements that surrounded them, everyday objects that they approached to enhance their creativity. A new method that allowed them to liberate themselves artistically in a different way, leaving conventional art behind.
In addition to fashion, Dalí was also involved in the design of furniture such as the Mae West Lips sofa. Collaborating with the British Edward James. Photo: Andy Stagg
On the other hand, the influence of surrealism in fashion began in the 1930s, and here the figure of Salvador Dalí is a reference point. He created covers for fashion magazines such as Vogue, and his collaboration with the French fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli resulted in innovative designs. In this way, the origins are recalled in order to reach the present day, in addition to seeing how technologies offer new methods to revolutionise the artistic world. For example, how 3D printers make it possible to create functional furniture;
When: 14 October 2022 – 19 February 2023
Where: The Design Museum, 224 – 238 Kensington, High Street, London, Great Britain
Opening hours: Sunday to Thursday from 10.00h to 18.00h. Friday and Saturday 10am – 9pm.
Tickets: You can buy tickets here
YSL: everything it touched turned to gold
Finally, this 2022, Yves Saint Laurent is celebrating twice: 60 years ago the first collection under his name was released, and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent is celebrating its fifth anniversary. And for such a special occasion, the museum has decided to show how the couturier turned fabrics into works of art with golden touches. The exhibition GOLD Les ors d’Yves Saint Laurent explores gold through 40 dresses and pret-a-porter, as well as accessories, objects and jewellery.
Karen Mulder with evening ensemble. Autumn-winter collection 1995. Photo: Guy Marineau. Plus Loulou de La Falaise in an evening outfit from the autumn-winter 1988 collection. Photo: Arthur Elgort
Gold was a source of inspiration for the designer throughout his career. From the first buttons on the first coat to the all-gold dresses. Always using shimmering elements such as sequin, lace or brocade. A shine that, together with the black garments, highlighted elegance, as well as the woman’s body. The power emitted by the presence of women, joy or energy. Because women were the common thread of his creations.
Gold buttons have always been an essential element in the designs. As well as being representative accessories in haute couture. Photo: Matthieu Lavanchy
The connection between clothes and jewellery goes hand in hand at the French house, and Anna Klossowski, daughter of Loulou de La Falaise, the couturier’s goddaughter, shows it through 300 selected jewels. In addition, during the exhibition, visitors can also enjoy accessories and objects created by the sculptor Claude Lalanne. Some items, which may seem strange at first glance, but which Laurent found them useful. From hats, gloves and gold boxes to thimbles and golden scissors.
When: 14 October 2022 to 14 May 2023
Where: 5 Av. Marceau, Paris, France
Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6pm. Thursdays from 11.00h to 21.00h. Monday closed
Tickets: You can buy tickets here
Images courtesy of Bassins des Lumières, Loop Barcelona, Louis Vuitton, MACBA, Miguel Chevalier, The Design Museum and Yves Saint Laurent.
