The long-awaited summer is slowly approaching, and we continue to discover and recommend art and culture in the 7 highlights of June 2022;
By this time the outdoor festivals are already unfolding, accompanying music, dance and culture. The Madrid Book Fair is already up and running, waiting for visitors to get into new stories, and in Verona they are already preparing to bring opera to the top of the Arena di Verona. Meanwhile, the legendary Art Basel and Brafa Art fairs hope to fill the streets of Basel and Brussels with as much art as possible. Meanwhile, we approach Andy Warhol‘s visions of faith, and the inspiration that reflections give the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Moreover, we come to understand that sharing art with the rest of the world, in the same way that Rafael Tous has done, gives life. Let’s travel between art and culture in the 7 highlights of June 2022!
Sharing the art that Rafael Tous collected
The Museo MACBA starts June with the last days of the exhibition In Real Time, the large collection of conceptual art that Rafael Tous donated last year. This is the first time that the Tous Collection arrives at the museum, with a selected sample of the thousand pieces collected from the collector being exhibited. This is a way of increasing the public heritage of the city of Barcelona, as well as offering visitors unique pieces that enrich the history of contemporary art.
The exhibition is made up of 120 works by 28 artists, displayed between the Meier building, the Capella MACBA, with the work No replay by Carlos Pazos, and the Sala Metrònom. In fact, the latter has been reopened especially to host Les portes de Linares by Jordi Benito. Throughout the visit, the characteristic diversity of the artists and the different themes on display fill the rooms. Travelling throughthe seventies and eighties in Catalonia, the exhibition covers everything from action art, through connection with nature, to ideological elements such as the representation of the mass media or political and social criticism.
Les portes de Linares by Jordi Benito. In the room you can see the body of the bull hanging from the ceiling, and how its figure is reflected on the wall. Photo by Miquel Coll
The work No hay replay by Carlos Pazos is on display at the Capella MACBA. An old and dark space. Photo by Miquel Coll
From MACBA itself they emphasize two singular works already mentioned, No replay and Les portes de Linares. The first of them was already exhibited at the end of the 1980s at the Sala Metrònom. It combines the passage of time, antiquity and the strange staging. The second also highlights memories and recollections of the past. Reliving the Linares bullring in 1947, when the bullfighter Manolete lost his life. But instead of looking at him, Jordi Benito looks at the life of the bull. The animal is suspended on the verge of falling, reflecting on how nature is dying.
When: From 14 May 2021 to 6 June 2022.
Where: Plaça dels Àngels, 1, Barcelona
Hours: Monday to Friday from 11:00h to 19:30h. Saturdays from 10:00h to 20:00h. Sundays from 10:00h to 15:00h. Tuesday closed
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Centuries and centuries with the magic of books in their hands
The 81st edition of the Book Fair of Madrid lands once again in El Retiro Park under the slogan Hojea el mundo, offering more than 300 activities, with 378 stands and more than 400 exhibitors. The demand for participation has made the Feria the largest in size so far this century. The irregular hiatus of the past two editions has sparked a lot of energy to return to normality in a big way. This edition does not have a guest country, but the figure of Latin America and the presence, for the first time, of the European Union takes visitors to distant regions without having to leave the capital.
From left to right: The writer Domingo Villar at the Madrid Book Fair in 2021. No hay problemas hay poemas, one of the posters on the stands set up last year.
This year the fair pays tribute to Domingo Villar and Almudena Grandes, renowned writers who left us very recently. And as a new feature, caring for the planet is present, with a special programme for 5 June, World Environment Day. In addition, the fight to encourage reading from childhood and raise the voice of women are essential pillars. In this way, they have an extensive campaign of activities, and focus, as one of the examples, on women war correspondents. Some of the most expected writers for the signings are Javier Castillo, Julia Navarro or Carmen Mola, pseudonym of the writers Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero;
El paseo editorial and Hermida Editores stand, one of the hundreds of stands that visitors can enjoy discovering new books and authors.
New technologies are not lagging behind either, and for this reason, one of the new initiatives has been to introduce the Final Destination podcast. An audio format that introduces visitors to the books in an entertaining and entertaining way. Thus, throughout its 26 episodes, you will listen to interviews with well-known names in writing, facilitating the travel through the different genres, trends and pavilions that you can visit little by little during these days of the fair.
When:From 27 May to 12 June 2022.
Where?:El Retiro Park, Madrid
Hours: Monday to Friday from 10:30h to 14:00h, and from 17:30 to 21:30. Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 to 15:00 to 17:00 to 21:30.
The legendary art exhibition returns to Basel
Once again, Art Basel returns to our June highlights, with 289 national and international galleries. On the last weekend of May, art lovers could enjoy the fair in Hong Kong, enriching visitors with different cultural visions. Intermingling Asian ideals, techniques and trends, gaining knowledge about that which is far away, but with technological advances have made it easier to connect online.
From left to right: The year of living dangerously, 2022, by Maria Loboda in the Parcours section. Lackadaisical Sunset to Sunset by Mounira Al Solh, 2022. The artist constructs stories embroidered on the canvases, women from the Arab world, including the presence of her grandmother.
Marc Spiegler, director of Art Basel, is happy to be able to bring the fair back to its traditional date and fill the entire city with art.
We return to Basel with a large-scale programme, from the Lawrence Weiner installation at Messeplatz, the interventions at Parcours, to our film programme dedicated to artists working with movements,” says Marc Spiegler.
With the same critical vision of how to elevate and recognise all kinds of art, the faircontinues to feature different sections, with ample spaces to showcase the exhibitions excellently. During the tours on offer, visitors can enjoy large-scale projects, murals full of paintings, such as Hardware Store Painting by Theaster Gates. In the Parcours section are sculptural installations in civic and private spaces. Some of them in new locations, and in the open air, such as the sculpture Silent Autumn by Tomás Saraceno, presented in the garden of Haus zum Raben.
Paying homage to Lawrence Weiner with his work Out of Sight
The Messeplatz section will host the work Out of sight, a participatory floor installation in homage to Lawrence Weiner, the American artist who died at the end of last year. His project aims to inspire visitors as they step on texts and words focused on positive thoughts, of effort and struggle. As for the Film section, the curator Marian Masone has highlighted one of the many feature films to be seen, the history of African-American art Black art: In the absence of light, directed by Sam Pollard.
When:From 16 June to 19 June 2022.
Where?: Messeplatz, 10, Basel, Switzerland
Hours: Thursday to Sunday from 11:00h to 19:00h. Thursday night special from 19:00h to 22:00h. Parcours Night Saturday from 16:00h to 23:00h.
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Revealing Andy Warhol’s faith in God and art
The Brooklyn Museum has brought the strong connection between Andy Warhol, his religious faith and art and pop culture to the stage with the exhibition Andy Warhol: Revelation. In this way, the life and career of the celebrated artist is explored, focusing on the influence he brought to his work through religion, being a practising Byzantine Catholic. The figure of his mother, Julia Warhola, was important to him, both in terms of art, as she was a lover of painting, and in terms of faith, as she instilled it in him as a child.
Warhol knew how to play with the artistic culture of the time, combining it with religious symbolism; representing the figure of Christ, Renaissance images or Catholic family rituals. Among the more than one hundred objects on display, many of them are unusual in that they have not often come to light, and some have even been recently unveiled. During the visit, visitors can contemplate his particular work; The Last Supper, an original painting by Leonardo da Vinci or the experimentalunderground film The Chelsea Girls. In addition, drawings designed by Julia Warhola, when they lived together in New York, will also be on display.
From left to right: Andy Warhol: Last Sitting, November 22, 1986. Raphael Madonna-$6.99, 1985, acrylic ink and silkscreen on linen. Andy Warhol had the creativity and essence to make works and culture formerly associated with the upper classes available to everyone. Because of these characteristics so closely linked to him, he is a reference to the pop culture revolution.
Carmen Hermo, the organiser of the exhibition, stated that the relationship between the artist’s faith and his sexuality was often controversial. Creating works depicting muscular men embraced by God, situations which, in the middle of the last century did not please everyone, but he had no intention of changing it. For that was him. As the title of the exhibition indicates, although Warhol is a legend, there are always elements to reveal.
When: From 19 November 2021 to 19 June 2022.
Where: 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York City
Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 11:00h to 18:00h
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Connecting past and present at the Brafa Art Fair
The Belgian capital will once again fill its streets with art with the 67th edition of the BRAFA Fair, with innovations and a large number of galleries and artists. The exhibitions will take place on the Heysel Plateau, bringing together 115 galleries from 15 different countries throughout the week. Visitors will be able to discover the stories hidden in the works themselves, art that spans ancient, modern and contemporary times. Offering art lovers an increasingly greater qualitative offer, bringing together more diverse artists, with different visions, but who bring together the essence of what they have created.
The fair features new exhibitors, something of which BRAFA’s president, Harold t’Kint de Roodenbeke, is proud, as one of his main goals is to bring together a unique mix of art that enriches visitors.
Every year, we take the time to analyse new applications in order to offer a mix of new and loyal exhibitors, and to propose new specialities, such as the Islamic art of the Kevorkian Gallery,” says Harold t’Kint from Roodenbeke.
Six new galleries arrive from Belgium, including Dei Bardi Art, which brings together works from medieval to renaissance sculptures, mostly using stone and marble. The MDZ Gallery and the QG Gallery, based in Knokke, bring with them contemporary and post-war art. On an international level, the AV Modern & Contemporany, a Swiss gallery, and the aforementioned Kevorkian stand out from the fair. A Parisian gallery specialising in the archaeology of the Ancient East and the arts of Islam and India.
Touring the fair throughout the week, visitors will be able to feel and observe the diversity on display in terms of styles and periods, highlighting the Studio 2000 art gallery exhibiting Children Making Music, an early 20th century painting by Jan Sluijters, or the sculpture Age dAirain by Auguste Rodin.As guest of honour, the artist Arne Quinze has been chosen for the fair. His interest in and observation of nature, especially flowers, is emphasised. The president of BRAFA emphasised his work and how his works make us reflect on the life that comes from the Earth and surrounds us. Considering this as essential, as it makes us reconnect spiritually with our roots.
When:From 19 June to 26 June 2022.
Where: Place de Belgique, 1, Brussels, Belgium
Hours: Friday to Wednesday from 11:00h to 19:00h. Thursday from 11:00h to 22:00h
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Opera about the charm of Verona
With June marked on our calendars, come the outdoor festivals, mixing music, sun and shows. And with all this, the 99th edition of Opera Festival arrives at the Arena di Verona to accompany the whole summer. A show that will bring five opera productions and three special events to the stage for 45 nights. These three unique performances will feature Roberto Bolle and Friends, bringing together music and dance. The symphonic and choral concert of Carmina Burana and Sunday in Verdi Opera Night;
Performance of Carmen at Arena di Verona in 2016
The work in charge of opening the curtain on the first opening night will be Carmen by Georges Bizet. A production which was already performed in 1995, and which aims to transmit with total passion the art of Seville. Enamoured with the “duende” that the Andalusian city exudes, accompanying the rebellious gypsy girl. The second opera will be Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, a symbol of the Arena since its first premiere in 1913. The work will transport the audience to ancient Egypt, to its magic, taking them on a journey through history and love. In addition, Aida will be in charge of closing the festival as the last performance of the festival.
Verdi’s La Traviata in 2019. All perfectly composed, together with delicate garments that take the audience to a different era.
Verdi is among the most honoured in Verona as his masterpieces Nabucco and La Traviata take place during the three months of the show. The first, inaugurated in 2017, following the King of Babylon, while the second, one of the most performed operas in the world where the love story between Violetta and Alfredo is accompanied. Finally, the fifth performance will be Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, showing the Forbidden City, love and hope.
When: From 17 June to 4 September 2022.
Where: P.za Bra, 1, Verona, Italy
Schedule: In June the shows start at 21:15h. In July at 21:00h and August at 20:45h. The Roberto Bolle and Friends show at 21:15, Carmina Buranda at 21:30h and Sunday in Verdi Opera Night at 21:00h.
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Kusama among infinite mirrors
Wrapping up the art and culture recommendations in the 7 highlights of June 2022, the Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms exhibition has landed with such force at Tate Modern, that they have reciprocally decided to extend it so that visitors can enjoy it for another year. The work of the Japanese artist is presented with two immersive installations in the hall of mirrors. On the one hand, Filled with the brilliance of life, one of the largest works created by Kusama to date. Inside the space, visitors will be enveloped between mirrored walls, water and a constellation of thousands of small lights suspended from the ceiling. Recreating being inside an infinite universe. This first experience is accompanied by Chandelier of grief, in which spectators will disappear and will not see themselves reflected. Being part of that magical world.
Chandelier of grief embellishes the room in an infinite way
On the other hand, they also have The universe as seen from the stairway to heaven 2021, a new sculpture created especially for the occasion by the artist herself. All this composed of reflections, something very characteristic of the Japanese artist, as she explores the different ways of treating mirrors to create a repetitive and endless vision. Accompanying this world that immerses visitors in parallel worlds, Tate Modern offers the journey that Kusama has made during her career to make visitors understand how she has created.
Filled with the brilliance of life, another of artist Kusama’s immersive journeys, enveloping visitors in infinite light.
Art lovers who come to the exhibition to learn more can see photographs by Eikoh Hosose, Harry Shunk and Janos Kender. Showing the figure of the studio, a central personal space in art, or how Kusama crosses the limits of reflections to bathe them in paintings and sculptures. In addition, there are also images from films rediscovered by the British academic John Jones, showing the artist in the mid-1960s.
When: From until 11 June 2023.
Where: Bankside, London, UK
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 10:00h to 18:00h
Tickets: You can purchase tickets here.
Images on loan from MACBA, Feria del Libro Madrid, Art Basel, Brooklyn Museum, Brafa, Arena di Verona, Tate Modern
