Picasso: Untitled
“Picasso almost never gave his works a title; his friends, agents and curators did it for him.” Bernard Ruiz-Picasso.
Picasso: Untitled is an exhibition at La Casa Encendida curated by Eva Franch i Gilabert that presents 50 works from Picasso´s late period (1963-1973) as seen through the eyes of 50 contemporary artists.
Renaming is an act of love. Renaming is also a political act. The exhibition Picasso: Untitled invites us to look—which is also to think—beyond the known titles and representational interpretations of Picasso’s work.
The fifty Picasso works contained in the exhibition and the accompanying eponymous catalog have been subjected to a process of subjugation. 50 international artists, each one in conversation with a work, have created a new title and description that transforms, interrogates and redefines it. Building potential histories, each artist offers us a radically contemporary perspective on the work produced during the last decade of Picasso's life between 1963 and 1973. In this invitation to play with Picasso, the project opens spaces to questions latent in the works and essential in our present gaze as race, class, gender, identity, anthropocentrism, or empowerment.
The new titles and descriptions, some produced through speculative processes and others through poetic or political interpretations, collectively create a composite portrait of our current perceptions of Picasso's legacy and influence. This project invites us to develop an active gaze, to question aspects of our perception of Picasso's work, and at the same time of ourselves, of our values, and our contemporaneity.
The guest artists featured in the exhibition include Adrián Villar Rojas, Agnieszka Kurant, Ahmet Öğüt, Albert Serra, Alejandro Cesarco, Antoni Muntadas, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Black Quantum Futurism, Cabello/Carceller, Camille Henrot, Christine Sun Kim, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, DIS, El Conde de Torrefiel, Emilie Baltz, Erwin Wurm, Esther Ferrer, Frida Orupabo, Holly Herndon, Isabel Coixet, Iván Argote, Janaina Tschäpe, Jill Magid, Joy Harjo, Johanna Hedva, Jumana Manna, Klára Hosnedlová, Leonor Serrano-Rivas, Lydia Ourahmane, Maria Hassabi, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Niño de Elche, Omsk Social Club, ORLAN, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Pedro Neves Marques, Pol Taburet, Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Roméo Mivekannin, Ryan Gander, Sara Ramo, Simon Denny, Simon Fujiwara, Sissel Tolaas, Tala Madani, Taryn Simon, The Otolith Group, Trevor Paglen, Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Tyra Tingleff.