Double readings in Gijón

The Culture Center Antiguo Instituto de Gijón hosts 'Double readings'. Identidades y ficciones', an exhibition that opens a space to reflect on identity, the body and fiction through contemporary works. Until January 26, this exhibition invites to delve into the multiple registers of identity and the body, exploring masks, role-playing and the theatricality of existence, and highlighting how art can be a mirror social and introspective.

Curator and art historian Semiramis González has carried out intensive research to select 35 works that deal with aesthetic and identity issues such as fiction, portraiture, masquerade and costumes. The exhibition covers the Circa XX collections and the New Pilar Citoler Collection, two funds of great importance for contemporary art. The New Pilar Citoler Collection includes 400 works, including painting, sculpture and photography by both national and international artists. For its part, Circa XX is a heterogeneous set of 1,200 pieces, which includes painting, drawing, graphic work, photography, sculpture, installations and video. These collections not only reflect Citoler's career as a renowned collector, but also become a manifesto of his sensibility and artistic vision. Pilar Citoler has been a key figure in the Spanish cultural scene, with recognitions such as the ARCO Prize for Private Collecting, the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, and her presidency of the Reina Sofia Museum in 2007.

With this approach, González brings into dialogue the works of great masters such as Graciela Iturbide, Grete Stern, Concha Jerez, Francis Bacon and Esther Ferrer , with the creations of young talents such as Marina Vargas, Dalila Gonçalves and Erica Nyholm . In addition, the exhibition includes a local performance with Asturian artists such as Soledad Córdoba, Avelino Sala, Federico Granell and Sandra Paula Fernández .

In some of the works, the fiction and the mask are visible and explicit; in others, the artist's subtle intervention offers a more poetic transformation. In both the physical and the symbolic body, art serves as a vehicle for disguises and identity transformations.

'Dream n.31', Grete Stern (1950)

Estudis de l'espatlla masculina, Francis Bacon (1987)