«Quodlibet» at Museu do Neo-Realismo Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal
23.03—09.06.2024
curated by David Santos
«With "Quodlibet", the project designed for the Museum of Neo-Realism, Vila Franca de Xira, the artist once again takes on this deliberate game: reconverting the mimesis of painting in favour of spatial awareness. Taking on the presuppositions dictated by the white cube of the exhibition space, Rui Macedo also tries to deal with the additional challenge imposed by another idiosyncrasy of the Museum's gallery, the fact that it opens onto the small Rua Almeida Garrett, which is adjacent to it, thus admitting the constraints of its "pre-existences" — structural, chromatic and formal, as well as of meaning and memory — associated with the diversity of worn and aged buildings on this artery of the city. This consideration of pre-existing spatial meanings can be seen from the outset in the fact that the artist has not made autonomous objects that produce indifference in relation to space, but rather has sought to respond to the affirmative density of this condition by proposing a set of paintings that reinterpret and certify at the same time a visual reality that is first and foremost physical and presential, verifiable in the very space of the pictorial presentation or its installation.
The central challenge of "Quodlibet" therefore consists of a dialogue or game of visuality inevitably produced between the painting, the exhibition space and its external surroundings, which, due to their strong presence provided by a large glazed surface, acquire an extraordinary value in the perception of the art space itself, confusing it with many aspects, some of them unsuspected, others unexpected. »
David Santos., excerpt from the catalogue essay., 2024
«Rui Macedo, a "heterotopic" (in a certain Borgesian sense) painter, paints and "frames" pictures that exhibit a deceptive transparency], with fine humour he unveils the logic of museums, their strategy of generating timeless fetishes, objects that cease to be so in order to enter into "disinterested perception". Speculating on museums, in the case of this Portuguese artist], also involves introducing anomalies into them.
Rui Macedo's metapictorial installations are, to a large extent, fascinating reworkings of thecabinets d'amateurs], as in the exhibition entitled "Un CuerpoExtraño", which he produced at the Museo de Artes Decorativas in Madrid. His work is a hybrid: arranged between painting and installation, it plays withobjet trouvé,proposes unlikely framings, or changes the scale of the pedestals. Macedo introduces "anomalies" into museums, inviting us to look from an unusual point of view.»
Fernando Castro Flórez, excerpt from the catalogue essay., 2024
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The solo exhibition "Quodlibet" curated by David Santos, was held from March 23 to June 9, 2024, at Neo Realism Museum, in Portugal.
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27 April I 16h00
Conversation with Rui Macedo
Free entry18 May | 17h00
Conversation with David Santos, João Sousa Cardoso e Rui Macedo, Link
Free entry
24 May | 16h00
Conversation with David Santos
Free entry -
On the occasion of this exhibition, it was published the catalogue «Quodlibet» (PT/EN) with essays by David Santos and Fernando Castro Flórez.
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David Santos (b. 1971, Vila Franca de Xira, PT) is an art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art. He holds a PhD in Contemporary Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Coimbra (2014). Since May 2022, he has been the Scientific Director of the Museum of Neo-Realism and the Director of Culture at the Vila Franca de Xira City Council.
From March 2020 to April 2022, he served as the curator of the Portuguese State Collection of Contemporary Art. He was the Deputy Director General of Cultural Heritage from 2016 to 2020, and the Vice-President of the Intergovernmental Council of the Ibermuseums Programme – Ibero-American International Cooperation from 2018 to 2020.
He was also the Director of the "Revista de Museus" (Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage/Ministry of Culture) from 2018 to 2022. Additionally, he served as the Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art from 2013 to 2015 and as the Director of the Museum of Neo-Realism from 2007 to 2013.
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Fernando Castro Flórez (b. Plasencia, Spain, 1964) is Professor of Aesthetics and Theory of the Arts at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is an art critic for the cultural supplement ABC Cultural and has regularly contributed to major Spanish newspapers and cultural outlets, including El País, Diario16, El Independiente, El Sol, and El Mundo, as well as magazines such as Descubrir el Arte and Revista de Occidente. He is the director of Cuadernos del IVAM and a member of the editorial board of Pasajes. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Museo Reina Sofía and is a member of its Advisory Commission.
Castro Flórez has curated numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and international art events, including the Chile Triennial, the Curitiba Biennial, and the Chilean Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. He has curated exhibitions of artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Tony Cragg, David Nash, Nacho Criado, Fernando Sinaga, and Antón Lamazares.
He has also worked as an editor and translator, including publications of Walter Benjamin’s writings. His authored books include Elogio de la pereza. Notas para una estética del cansancio (1992), Escaramuzas. El arte en el tiempo de la demolición (2003), Sainetes y otros desafueros del arte contemporáneo (2007), Una “verdad” pública. Consideraciones sobre el arte contemporáneo (2010), y Contra el bienalismo. Crónicas fragmentarias del extraño mapa actual (2012).
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Interview with the curator David Santos - Link