Bilbao: The Luminous Interval: The D. Daskalopoulos Collection, is the first large-scale presentation of this private collection of contemporary art, one of the most important around the world.
The exhibit, open till September 11 at the "Solomon R. Guggenheim" Museum, relies on the sponsorship of Iberdrola and takes up the second floor and part of the first one. It includes approximately 60 works by some 30 artists who work on a variety of means, with a particular view on sculpture and large-scale facilities.
Based on a set of pieces that date back to the 1980s and 1990s, made by recognized figures as Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy, Annette Messager and Kiki Smith, the exhibition also integrates projects by young talents such as Paul Chan, Guyton/Walker, Nate Lowman and Wangechi Mutu. Thus, the exposition offers an accurate analysis to the visitor about some of the most remarkable artistic developments of recent decades.
The Luminous Interval: The D.Daskalopoulos Collectionis commissioned Nancy Spector, deputy director and head curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and by Katherine Brinson, associated curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
The title of the exhibition stems from the texts of Greek philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), whose thoughts have been especially influential on Dimitris Daskalopoulos’s collecting ability. Kazantzakis used to see life as a "luminous interval" during which, fighting and disintegration were necessary for both creation and rebirth. The Luminous Interval: The D. Daskalopoulos Collection explores this coexistence of hope and desperation in the heart of the human condition, stressing mainly on such concepts as alienation, trauma, cultural identity or the human body.
The D. Daskalopoulos Collection reflects the sign of the times, and many of the works in this exhibit deal with the crises and successes of the contemporary life. In spite of that, a considerable chunk of the works derive in or allude to geopolitical or social concrete contexts, which Dimitris Daskalopoulos values in an effort to also tackle universal questions, specially the unquestionable capacity of recovery of the human spirit.
Athenian Dimitris Daskalopoulos is an active artist who has managed to assemble one of the more important collections of contemporary art in the world, made up of over 400 works by 170 artists, with more than 140 pieces displayed in as many as 120 international museums across Europe and the U.S. in the course of the past fifteen years.
The D.Daskalopoulos Collection pays special heed to sculpture and the art of large-scale installation, as well as to cinema and the video. Many of his more ambitious and important pieces, included in the exhibition of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, will be exposed for the first time since they were acquired for the collection. Nowadays, Daskalopoulos is engaged in the search of an adequate emplacement in Athens that could become the permanent headquarters of his collection from 2013/14. There, he intends to create a public space that promotes the ideas and the importance of the contemporary art and its appraisal, with special values tacked on to interaction and education.
Source: Press release
More information: http: // www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/
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