“A SYMPÓSION ON SELF-PORTRAITS”

YASUMASA MORIMURA

“A SYMPÓSION ON SELF-PORTRAITS”

Opening: May 24th, 2023

We had long wished to have Yasumasa Morimura back in our program, an artist with whom we have collaborated for more than twenty years, as his projects are among those that most excite the public. We made sure that his sixth exhibition in the gallery coincides with PhotoEspaña, so that this proposal, which combines photography and video art with painting, reaches a wider audience.

In this selection of photographs, Morimura transmutes into some of the painters who have received greatest recognition throughout history, and analyzes, through his self-portraits, the evolution of the representation of the Self. The renowned legends of Western art, the Flemish artists Jan van Eyck and Dürer bring the most classical vision, together with Renaissance Master, Leonardo da Vinci. His take on Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio propose three very different ways of understanding Baroque portraits, and Le Brun’s, one of the most sough-after artists of her time, is represented in Rococo style. This list of artists closes with contemporary figures: Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Warhol. And the great Velázquez.

The video EGÓ SYMPÓSION (75 minutes), exhibited for the first time in Spain, is an opportunity to get into the work behind each of Morimura’s photographs. Showing his undeniable talent as an actor, he gives voice to the aforementioned artists. Through surreal time travel, we will see van Gogh walking the streets of present-day Japan, or Rembrandt in a 21st-century museum. A gathering of personalities with whom the universal truth and the concept of authenticity are questioned, through a personal appropriationist gesture.

Although he is the only protagonist of all his works, Morimura detaches himself from his identity to offer a complex reading of the ego. A historical revisionism that invites us to reflect on how our time has turned some of the leading figures of Art History into anachronistic legends, cultural products, or mere attractions.