Fifth-anniversary celebration with Thomas Hirschhorn in Madrid, Lisbon and Cáceres

Museo Helga de Alvear (Cáceres, Spain) is organizing the celebration of its fifth anniversary with an ambitious program conceived in collaboration with artist Thomas Hirschhorn. The proposal will connect Cáceres with Madrid and Lisbon, culminating in a large inclusive party at the museum in Cáceres on the last weekend of February. 

The museum, which recently opened MY ATLAS # OUR ATLAS, the first anthological exhibition dedicated to Thomas Hirschhorn in 20 years, curated by director Sandra Guimarães, has given the renowned artist a carte blanche to develop the celebration of its five years of existence since it opened its doors on February 25, 2021.

Under the title 5 years Museo Helga de Alvear, Caceres = If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!, the Museum and Thomas Hirschhorn have conceived a program featuring Pop-Up-Marilyn, the first public art project “by and with the artist Thomas Hirschhorn” in Spain and Portugal, created specifically for this occasion.

Hirschhorn will bring an original Warhol from the Helga de Alvear Collection to the Atocha—Almudena Grandes train station in Madrid (Tuesday, February 24) and the Gare do Oriente train station in Lisbon (Thursday, February 26). “POP-UP-MARILYN” can be enjoyed in the presence of the artist and Sandra Guimarães at both stations from 11am to 6pm. The work will return to Cáceres to be exhibited at the big party that will take place throughout the weekend at the Museum on February 27 and 28 and March 1.

Following the invitation of the museum´s director, Sandra Guimarães, Thomas Hirschhorn thus highlights Cáceres central position between Madrid and Lisbon, making the city's connection with the Spanish and Portuguese capitals palpable through art. This union is made explicit through the creation of an “altar” on which the artist will present Andy Warhol's Marilyn (1986), one of the masterpieces of art history in public spaces. It is not just a matter of “taking the museum out onto the street,” but of going further to reach other cities, citizens and crossing borders.

In the words of Thomas Hirschhorn, "Pop-Up-Marilyn is the affirmation 5 years Museo Helga de Alvear, Caceres = If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!". Exhibiting Pop-Up-Marilyn in Madrid and Lisbon train and bus stations, and finally at the museum in Caceres, is a homage to Helga de Alvear and her passion for Art. It is a reverence to Andy Warhol's Marilyn which belongs to Helga de Alvear collection, and its form gives a body, as an altar in public space, for celebrating—always and everywhere—Art”.

In addition, as part of the celebration that will continue in Cáceres, the artist will intervene the museum spaces with enormous banners displaying reflections by the great philosopher Simone Weil on the power of art, among other surprises. The program, with more than 40 hours of free activities for all audiences, includes sessions by DJs based in Extremadura (Helga's DJ sessions), new works on display, screenings of films selected by the artist himself (Helga Cinema in the Museum: Carte Blanche for Thomas Hirschhorn), foods of the world tastings (Cocina-Mundo) and dozens of guided tours and workshops (“Power-Tools” workshops) for all ages. In addition, to mark the anniversary, the museum will launch a special edition of t-shirts designed by Thomas Hirschhorn himself, which will be available in the museum shop from Friday, February 27.

In the words of Sandra Guimarães, "this grand celebration is an invitation to everyone to celebrate the legacy of Helga de Alvear and the power of art and artists. It is a privilege to be able to organize this party with Thomas Hirschhorn, an artist who creates active spaces for encounters between people, ideas, and communities, one of Museo Helga's main missions. We invite everyone to be part of this great celebration, with which we want to transcend the boundaries of the museum and reinvent ways of experiencing it. We want to continue rethinking the role of the museum in the 21st century, as a critical institution that transforms itself while developing a community of relationships, as well as the conditions and methods through which learning and the experience of art take place. We will continue to build a museum that is open to the world and without compartments, a true critical instrument that allows direct contact between the artist, the public, and society; able of promoting exchanges and generating encounters, as well as providing a platform for the transformative power of art.

The project is an invitation to discover the Helga de Alvear Collection and also to visit Cáceres and enjoy Thomas Hirschhorn's exhibition at Museo Helga de Alvear. Furthermore, as Guimarães points out, “it reaffirms the philosophy of the Helga, a living museum that is deeply inclusive and where we encourage an active participation of the community.” 

Museo Helga de Alvear was created to house one of Europe's most relevant private collections of international contemporary art, developed over 60 years by the renowned gallery owner, collector, and philanthropist Helga de Alvear (1936–2025). With more than 3,000 works of art by over 600 artists from five continents, the collection includes works by Thomas Hirschhorn, Wassily Kandinsky, Dominique González-Foerster, Haegue Yang, Olafur Eliasson, Georg Baselitz, Tracey Moffatt, Walid Raad, Carmen Herrera, Gabriel Orozco, Isaac Julian, and Ángela de la Cruz, among many others. In addition to the collection, the museum is developing an ambitious program of temporary exhibitions, as well as community engagement projects. Museo Helga de Alvear is free, accessible, and open, and is a place for experimentation, research, and dissemination, where art is a tool for critical thinking.

“5 years Museo Helga de Alvear, Caceres = If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!” is organized by Museo Helga de Alvear with collaboration of Infraestuturas de Portugal and the support of Galerie Chantal Croussel, the Swiss Embassy to Spain and Andorra, the Spanish Embassy in Portugal, IES Al-Qázeres, Cervezas Alhambra, and the Cáceres European Capital of Culture 2031 bid.