Within the framework of the program of activities related to the 150th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, in the last three years a series of exhibitions have been held that review the trajectory of former scholarship holders for whom their stay in Rome was a milestone. turning point in his career. This cycle began with Gregorio Prieto and his photographic production, whose exhibition took place in the spring of 2018, and continued in 2019 with Pepe Espaliú, where a look at the last years of this artist's life and his unknown stage as Scholar at the Academy.
The Academy continues this cycle with this retrospective of Rogelio López Cuenca, who, based on his scholarship at this institution in the 1994-1995 academic year, reinforced his international projection, and especially his relations with Italy. For this reason, works will be exhibited mostly after his stay in Rome or in relation to the city itself. In this way, the Academy intends to underline the importance of the generations of scholarship recipients who continue in active production and were / are / will be key in the contemporary art scene of our country, a fact that in this case is evidenced in the monographic exhibition that recently took place. He has dedicated to the artist in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ("Going reading, giving place").
"A QUEL PAESE" is the first anthological exhibition of Rogelio López Cuenca (Málaga, 1959) in Italy. Among the most significant artists of his generation, López Cuenca has been carrying out research work for almost four decades with an important critical component that is evidenced in the political and poetic dimension of his artistic practice. The exhibition exhibits about 15 pieces from the early 1990s until today, among which we find some large installations that address recurring themes in his work: migration policies, historical memory, the spectacularisation of culture, the tourist reconversion of contemporary cities, colonial and institutional criticism.
As the enigmatic title of this exhibition shows, attention to the semantic potentials of language and its use is the critical strategy that embodies the unconventional way of López Cuenca, poet before visual artist, in his purpose of resignifying and rethinking reality, beyond the fiction imposed by the dominant discourse.
The exhibition takes place in the spaces of the monumental complex of the Academia de España, on a route that goes beyond the exhibition rooms accessed from the cloister, occupying spaces that are exceptionally open to the public such as the terrace-garden and the co-working, continuing in the nearby Fondazione Baruchello and infiltrating the public space of the city.
The Academy continues this cycle with this retrospective of Rogelio López Cuenca, who, based on his scholarship at this institution in the 1994-1995 academic year, reinforced his international projection, and especially his relations with Italy. For this reason, works will be exhibited mostly after his stay in Rome or in relation to the city itself. In this way, the Academy intends to underline the importance of the generations of scholarship recipients who continue in active production and were / are / will be key in the contemporary art scene of our country, a fact that in this case is evidenced in the monographic exhibition that recently took place. He has dedicated to the artist in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía ("Going reading, giving place").
"A QUEL PAESE" is the first anthological exhibition of Rogelio López Cuenca (Málaga, 1959) in Italy. Among the most significant artists of his generation, López Cuenca has been carrying out research work for almost four decades with an important critical component that is evidenced in the political and poetic dimension of his artistic practice. The exhibition exhibits about 15 pieces from the early 1990s until today, among which we find some large installations that address recurring themes in his work: migration policies, historical memory, the spectacularisation of culture, the tourist reconversion of contemporary cities, colonial and institutional criticism.
As the enigmatic title of this exhibition shows, attention to the semantic potentials of language and its use is the critical strategy that embodies the unconventional way of López Cuenca, poet before visual artist, in his purpose of resignifying and rethinking reality, beyond the fiction imposed by the dominant discourse.
The exhibition takes place in the spaces of the monumental complex of the Academia de España, on a route that goes beyond the exhibition rooms accessed from the cloister, occupying spaces that are exceptionally open to the public such as the terrace-garden and the co-working, continuing in the nearby Fondazione Baruchello and infiltrating the public space of the city.
