A project by: CentroCentro and Museum of Contemporary Art Madrid
Curator: Carlos Garaicoa 

The city, as well as urban life and its representations, has been an essential subject in of CentroCentro’s programmes since its foundation. It is no coincidence, then, that in its field of action it establishes dialogues with artists and works that reflect on these problems from their different angles. For this reason, and due to the fact that he has been an active agent in our curatorial activity, we were keen to invite Carlos Garaicoa (Cuba, 1967) to curate this exhibition, and to explore the archives of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Madrid (MAC). For more than a decade since his arrival in Madrid, the work he has carried out as part of his Open Studio has allowed him to establish a transversal perspective of the local and international contemporary art scene, generating an effective dialogue between emerging creators and established figures in the art world.

The MAC began to create its collection in the 1980s and currently has some 5000 pieces that represent artistic creation in Spain during the 20th and 21st centuries, paying special attention to the city of Madrid. The collection is divided into different sections such as painting, sculpture, drawing, graphic work, and photography, and also includes such an outstanding period room as the Office of Ramón Gómez de la Serna. 

Carlos Garaicoa has primarily centred his attention on the photographic collection, although he has also found other iconographies of the city in other languages, with which he has shaped a broad universe that escapes the very objectivity of the lens to configure distant, apparent and mirrored images.  Madrid, which is given centre stage in this interpretation, also serves as a starting point from which to reflect on more universal questions such as the contradictions of contemporary cities and their political, social and material transformation.

Images from the Rear-view Mirror: Distant, Apparent, Mirrored, offers an updated vision of the collection, as not only does it include works that are already characteristic of the museum, but it also adds more recent pieces and other creators who address urban life in its myriad scenarios and complexities. This exhibition is also an invitation to rethink the space we live in today.

Artists:
Aitor Ortiz, Alberto García-Alix, Álvaro Machimbarrena, Blanca Muñoz, Boris Savelev, Chema Alvargonzález, Christo, Concha Jerez, Damián Flores, David Magán, Elena Asins, Eulalia Valldosera, Gabriele Basilico, Isidro Blasco Perujo, Joaquín Millán, Joaquín Torres-García, Jorge Tarazona, José Iges, Juan Hidalgo, Juan Carlos Robles, Julián Gil, Los Torreznos, Manu Muniategiandikoetxea, Ola Kolehmainen, Primož  Bizjak, Ramón Masats, Roland Fischer, Sandra Gamarra, Susana Solano

Born in Cuba in 1967, Carlos Garaicoa currently lives and works in both Havana and Madrid. He employs a multidisciplinary approach that allows him to address cultural and political issues through the study of architecture, urbanism and history. The media he uses include installations, video, photography, sculpture, pop-up books and drawings. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Boston; Fondazione Berengo, Venice; Lund Konsthall and Skissernas Museum; Fondazione Merz, Turin; MAAT, Lisbon; Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo; CA2M Dos de Mayo Art Centre, Mostoles, Madrid; Botín Foundation, Santander; NC-Arte and FLORA ars + natura, Bogotá; Kunsthaus Baselland Muttenz/Basel; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Brunswick; Contemporary Art Museum, Institute for Research in Art, Tampa; H.F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), Amsterdam; La Panera Art Centre, Lerida; Caja de Burgos Contemporary Art Centre (CAB), Burgos; National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens; Inhotim Institute of Contemporary Art, Brumadinho and Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro; Medellín Modern Art Museum (MAMM); ICO Museum and Matadero Madrid; IMMA, Dublin; Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona; Museum of Contemporary Art (M.O.C.A. Los Angeles; Luis Ángel Arango Library, Banco de La República, Bogotá; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Alejandro Otero Museum, Caracas; and Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena. He has participated in events such as the Havana Biennial; Shanghai Biennial; São Paulo Biennial; Venice Biennial; Moscow Biennial; Yokohama Triennial and Echigo-Tsumari Triennial in Japan; Johannesburg Biennial; Liverpool Biennial; Documenta 11 and 14, Kassel; Auckland Triennial; PhotoEspaña 12, Madrid and San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial. In 2005 he received the 39th International Contemporary Art Prize from the “Pierre de Monaco” Foundation in Monte Carlo, and, in Los Angeles, the Katherine S. Marmor Award.