Exhibitions
The power of the Display: Nora Ancarola reveals the secrets of the MNAC
The basement as an archive and the archive as a display.
This Tuesday, October 28, the Espai educArt will host the presentation of the project La força del Display. Arxiu Gae by Nora Ancarola. It is a multimedia installation that is displayed in two areas of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya: the Espai educArt and Room 14, dedicated to the Romanesque art collection.
Through an audiovisual installation deployed in various spaces of the Museum, the artist Nora Ancarola proposes an experience that makes visible what usually remains hidden: the internal mechanism that allows the Museum to continue vibrant and active. Through her work, visitors will be able to imagine that the underground galleries of the building are not only a physical space, but also a secret territory inhabited by the agents that maintain balance and containment, and that promote play, mystery and enigma. It is as if, within this hidden universe, a silent choreography were revealed that sustains the life of the Museum and accentuates its poetic and mysterious dimension.
The artist tours the building without the usual limitations of being “open to the public”, and perceives the entire Museum as an immense archive. “When we go down to the basement, a security device and the intense darkness make us think we have taken the wrong door. However, we continue the tour and discover that the MNAC collections have a history as long and complex as the evolution of the building itself, which has been remodeled and consolidated on several occasions”, explains Nora Ancarola.
Through this installation, the artist goes back to the conception of architecture defended by Gae Aulenti: the idea of the building as the foundation of a place. Thus, the Museum and its archives acquire an active role, giving shape and meaning to that which has lost its location and its memory.
“Let's imagine that we take the wrong staircase and enter the MNAC through the basement. A security device and extreme darkness indicate that we have taken the wrong door. Despite this, we continue on our way and discover that the visible places of the MNAC have an almost symmetrical space below, crossed by endless corridors that contain the heart and lungs that allow each of the works in the collection to breathe. Vital organs that beat 24 hours a day and 365 days a year”
