EVERSTILL
SIEMPRETODAVÍA
THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Hans Ulrich Obrist – Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects for the Serpentine Gallery of London – presented the catalogue for everstill/siempretodavía, his first exhibition in Spain, on February at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid. The show, organised by the Federico García Lorca Foundation and the SECC, brought together over 30 Spanish and international artists in Granada in the latest of the Swiss curator’s exhibitions conceived for the homes of such cultural figures as architect Luis Barragán in Mexico City, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in Sils Maria or architect Sir John Soane in London.
For the everstill/siempretodavía project, the invited artists visited the poet’s home in Granada to each create site specific work of art. The exhibition catalogue, which is being presented for the first time, contains extensive documentation of the show, including photographs of the house, the installation, the artists and their correspondence with the curator throughout the project. The book also includes interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist with several of the artists during their stay in Granada, published for the first time in this catalogue.
In the catalogue, Hans Ulrich Obrist describes the works of art created for everstill/siempretodavía: “Music composed specifically for the occasion by Enrique Morente can be heard in every corner of the Huerta de San Vicente, reminding us that Lorca once walked through its rooms. John Armleder presents a film based on different manuscripts in an empty room of the house. A tiny puppet theatre designed by the artists David Bestué and Marc Vives offers a performance of a work based on The Butterfly’s Evil Spell beneath Federico García Lorca’s bed, which in turn is covered with a counterpane embroidered by Rivane Neuenschwander. The same bedroom contains the photo In Bed with Lorca by Gilbert & George; two oil jugs, one original and the other an exact replica, by Roni Horn; and a typewriter that only types ones and zeros, which Rivane Neuenschwander uses to evoke Federico García Lorca’s Silent Dialogue of the Carthusians. Opposite this room, Cristina Iglesias opens a passageway to the poet’s dreams, and on its surface the endless lines of text have been transformed into a leafy path. In the adjacent room, Cerith Wyn Evans offers a small-format video that shows a firework made of verses which was created in an exhibition at the MUSAC in León during the first phase of everstill. Anri Sala invited Edi Rama, an artist and mayor of Tirana, to mingle his drawings with García Lorca’s in the permanent exhibition hall of the Huerta de San Vicente, and Paul Chan offers three collages conceived as footnotes to the writer’s work.
In the photograph located on the staircase, Untitled (colta por corta, er cormo por el colmo, le ponga por reponga e ilme por irme), an untranslatable play on words that Lorca and his friends used to imitate the speech defects of one of the members of the group, Anri Sala alludes to the contrast between Lorca’s brilliant life and senseless death, while Philippe Parreno takes the house back to when it was inhabited by the poet and his family by repainting the protective grilles in their original colour and creating permanent condensation on the window.
A drawing by Cy Twombly with Lorca’s famous verse, “Verde que te quiero verde. Verde viento”, welcomes visitors to the dining room. In this work, as in Lorca’s, opposites merge amidst a violence and harmony of aching beauty. Lorca’s Olive, a postcard with a photograph of an olive tree taken in Cadaqués by Tacita Dean in reference to the relationship between Lorca and Dalí, arrived daily during the eight months of the exhibition and was placed on the sideboard every morning, replacing that of the day before. In this same room, Franz West materialises the unconscious as a source of inspiration in a sculpture that surrounds a fragile cardboard Lorca doll.
In the storage room, the most secret corner of the house, Koo Jeong-A‘s work, a tailor – made suit a bit smaller than Lorca’s actual size – hangs surrounded by a strong odour of mothballs. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster covers the piano room with her work Blue Carpet, a library of 270 books related to Lorca’s life and work spread out on the floor. The subtle wail of Fever, Arto Lindsay‘s music box-sculpture, permeates this room, and on one of its walls hangs a painting by Sarah Morris showing the floor of the writer’s bedroom.
Pedro Reyes found inspiration in verses by Lorca that contain the word “water” to create the eight ceramic drinking jugs that fill the kitchen pantry. On the table of this same room sits a fruit bowl filled with dry oranges and lemons, on which Rivane Neuenschwander has etched the letters of an alphabet taken from a drawing by García Lorca. Nocturno esquemático, a die that has lost its markings, is also based directly on the poet’s drawings.
The everstill project, whose title is a work by Douglas Gordon, has lasted for nine months. During this time, various readings have been given, such as those offered by Enrique Vila-Matas and John Giorno at the inauguration of the first phase in November 2007 and those of James Fenton and Frederic Tuten in May 2008. Other artists have preferred to work outside of the house. Trisha Donnelly gave a performance at the theatre of the Alhambra Palace, where Lorca recited poems and gave lectures on several occasions. Another is the Democracia collective, which organised a political action in collaboration with the local newspaper Ideal. Based on the collection of complete works published by the Huerta de San Vicente, the Argentinean artist Jorge Macchi has released a book in which the journalistic text that inspired Blood Wedding is interwoven with the text of the news article about Lorca’s death by firing squad.
Last but not least, the director Pere Portabella has created a film entitled Mudanza, whose plot consists in emptying the house of all furniture and objects, leaving only the bare walls. This film was shown during the exhibition’s last ten days in a wooden cinema built in the garden while the Huerta de San Vicente remained empty.”
The aim of the Federico García Lorca Foundation is to promote the study and dissemination not only of the poet’s work, but also of all artistic and cultural manifestations influenced or inspired by his life and art.
CATALOGUE INFORMATION:
VOLUME I: Catalogue (texts and art works)
Format 13 x 19.5 cm, 288 pages
VOLUME II: Catalogue (photographs)
Format 13 x 19.5 cm, 112 pages
Two editions: English and Spanish
Introductory texts:
Soledad López, President of the SECC
Laura García-Lorca, President of the FFGL
Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator.
Interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist: James Fenton, Gilbert & George, Dominique González – Foerster, Enrique Vila-Matas, Cristina Iglesias, Enrique Morente, Pere Portabella.
Photographs: Luis Asín, Javier Algarra, and Ángela Martín-Retortillo.
Publishers: The Federico García Lorca Foundation and the Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales.
CREDITS
Organisation
Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales (secc)
Fundación Federico García Lorca
An exhibition curated by
Hans Ulrich Obrist
A project of
Isabela Mora
General coordination
Amelie Aranguren
Management
Desarrollo del Territorio y
Sociedad del Conocimiento
Communication in Spain
Ana Domínguez (ffgl)
Rosa Valdelomar (secc)
International Communication
Bolton & Quinn Ltd
Edition and coordination
Armero Ediciones
Design
BruMa