An exhibition with works by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos will open on May 7 at the Central Artística de Bueño, in Asturias, Spain, the organization announced.
The refurbishment of Spain’s Bueño power station to turn it into a space dedicated to culture was the winning project in the first edition of the Arte Pública competition, organized by the EDP Foundation and inaugurated as a cultural space in September.
Joana Vasconcelos will present two pieces, one of them recent, according to a statement from the organization about the exhibition, the artist’s second in Spain, after having inaugurated “I’m your mirror” at the Guggenheim Blibao Museum in 2018, the first solo show by a Portuguese artist in that museum space.
Contacted by the Lusa news agency, Fernando Ribeiro, curator of the exhibition in Bueño, said that the most recent piece is entitled “La Pasionaria”, and consists of a large textile heart with light, which will be suspended as a tribute to the Spanish anti-fascist fighter who became known by the same name.
Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez (1895-1989), known as “La Pasionaria”, was a Spanish communist revolutionary leader of Basque origin who was even elected to parliament.
“The heart-shaped piece is a tribute to this Spanish political activist, a strong woman, but at the same time to all the women who fought for freedom and democracy,” said Fernando Ribeiro.
The other piece is entitled “Diagonals” and is part of the “Tetris” series, inspired by the popular electronic game. The pieces in this series were created using Portuguese fabrics and tiles, according to the curator.
Until November 3, the Central Artística de Bueño will host these works by Joana Vasconcelos, the first woman to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles, who closed the “Plug-In” exhibition in April with new works such as “Árvore da Vida” (Tree of Life) at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, which was visited by more than 260,000 people in six months.
The first edition of the Public Art competition was organized by the EDP Foundation in collaboration with Ribera de Arriba Town Council, and this exhibition aims to “strengthen the artistic and social vocation of the space”, in whose artistic programming the Portuguese Embassy in Spain and MAAT collaborate.
The authors of the project to refurbish the Bueño power station are three architecture students from the University of Zaragoza, Marta Molins, Diego Catena and Claudia Gadea, winners of the first edition of the competition whose third edition, recently presented, aims to refurbish the Casona-Palacio de los Bustillo Ceballos, located in the Cantabrian town of Puente Viesgo.
