iCaixaForum BarcelonaMontjuïc
Una fuerza del pasado
Works mainly from the "la Caixa" contemporary art collection that confront art history and tradition, titled after a Pasolini poem.
More in Barcelona
You get into Mike Kelley's piece the only way it allows: on all fours. The Trajectory of Light in Plato's Cave is a big wooden cave. Of all the museums on Montjuïc, this is the one where you see the art on your hands and knees.
Around it hang 37 works, 32 from the "la Caixa" contemporary collection, each answering an older image. Robert Mangold turns a 1518 Pontormo drawing into a painting 5.5 metres wide, Cindy Sherman photographs herself as the biblical Judith, and Duchamp packs 68 replicas of his own work into one cardboard box. There are no sections: you pick your own route, and every label prints the older picture next to the new one.
Entry is the €6 general ticket that covers every show, free for under-16s and CaixaBank customers. An educator is in the room on weekday evenings from 17:30 and at weekends. If crawling isn't an option, a Super Zoom film on CaixaForum+ takes you inside Kelley's cave.
Editor's pick
Mike Kelley's wooden cave can only be entered on hands and knees. Around it, 37 works answer older images: Mangold turns a 1518 Pontormo drawing into a 5.5-metre painting; every label prints the old picture beside the new.
Look for
The cave you crawl into
Look for Mike Kelley's large wooden cave from 1985-1996, which you can only enter on hands and knees.
Mangold's 5.5-metre curve
A painting 5.5 metres wide keeps the diagonals and curves of a 1518 Pontormo drawing and drops its religious story.
Rembrandt in a bin bag
Javier Arce redrew The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp in marker and keeps it crumpled in a black bin bag, which is on show too.
Duchamp's museum in a box
The Boîte-en-valise unfolds to hold 68 small replicas and reproductions of Duchamp's own works, a retrospective in miniature.
Barceló's Mapa de carn
A canvas of animals, bodies, eyes and deformed creatures after Guernica, its repeated eyes taken from the Romanesque paintings of Sant Climent de Taüll.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want a story told in order: the show has no sections and you build your own route.
With kids
Under-16s go free. A €4 family visit-workshop on the show runs from 3 October to 2 January.
Free in the same building
Plan a visit to CaixaForum BarcelonaAlso at CaixaForum Barcelona
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
7
- Una fuerza del pasadoCourtesy of CaixaForum Barcelona
- Sim Acquisition, Drawing and WarCourtesy of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
- Wounded Militiaman: The Recovery of an Irredeemable PaintingCourtesy of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
- DividedCourtesy of Fundació Joan Miró
- CaixaForum BarcelonaVictoriano Javier Tornel García / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)Jvhertum / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Fundació Joan MiróCanaan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0