The King and Queen open Arco and visit the EL PAÍS booth

King Felipe and Queen Letizia began their tour of the International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO), on the grounds of Ifema, Madrid, by visiting the the EL PAÍS booth. There, the figurative artist Eduardo Arroyo (Madrid, 1937), in charge of the newspaper’s stand, explained the concept of the work The Paradise of Flies, composed of 90 pieces, some huge, inspired by these insects. The King, in a light gray suit, and Letizia, in a red dress and musketeer boots, admired the work, which was conceived as a stage set. Also on hand to greet the King and Queen were the Chair of PRISA, Manuel Polanco, and the President of El Pais, Juan Luis Cebrian.

After referring to his "cordial relationship" with the king emeritus, Juan Carlos, Arroyo went on to say that while "it is not difficult to create a work, explaining it can be,” before telling the King and Queen of an obsession with flies that dates back to childhood, when his grandmother hunted them down at his home in Robles de Laciana (Leon) while he watched on, lost in thought. The present work, he said, is a haunting metaphor for Spain.

After leaving the El País stand, the King and Queen, accompanied by the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, and the president of the Congress of Deputies, Ana Pastor, among other authorities, followed their planned route, with a total of 15 stops selected from among the 200 galleries in the two exhibition pavilions. Their route did not take them, however, past the Helga de Alvear gallery, which had housed the work of Santiago Sierra, withdrawn by Ifema, titled Political prisoners in Contemporary Spain.

The royal guests paused at the gallery Hauser & Wirth, which plans to reopen Chillida Leku in Hernani (Gipuzkoa) in mid-2018. At this gallery, which has offices in Zurich, London, Los Angeles and New York, they explored the work Pavilion for Showing Rock Videos / Films (2012) by artist Dan Graham, made up of a small corridor formed by two mirrors of glass and steel inside of which multiple monitors are installed. They also complimented the gallery owner on their good Spanish,  spoken "with an accent that did not seem to be from London.”

Latin America

During their nearly hour and a half long tour, the King and Queen were eager to explore Latin American art galleries, among them one of the largest in Brazil, Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, Sao Paulo. Both showed an interest in the sculptures by Armando Andrade Tudela, from Lima,  and photographs of votive offerings  by the Brazilian Tamar Guimarães.

There was the usual flurry of restive reporters and onlookers with mobile phones held high, leading to some surreal situation. "Let me through, please, I'm from the collective". "From the collective ...?"  asks one surprised bodyguard. "From the official entourage,  I mean." At the Berlin gallery Barbara Thumm, which is renowned for Latin American art, the King and Queen inquired about the "delicate drawings" by Anna K. E and the work of Peruvian Teresa Burga. At the Colombian gallery Casas Riegner, they admired the art of Beatriz González and drawings by tattoo artist José Antonio Suárez Londeño.

One of those works has been a huge hit with audiences this year also drew the attention of the King and Queen. This was a performance entitled Interruption (2017) at the London-based Spanish gallery The Ryder, by artist William Mackrell. It features a young woman lying on a piece of clear acrylic, with a fluorescent light inside, and who emits sounds that coincide with the flashes of light.

At times the crowd following the royal couple seemed to endanger some of those works that often go unnoticed, such as The Flying Dutchman (2018), by Kiko Pérez, and formed by a concrete slab which, sitting on the ground, was almost trampled several times. There was time too for an unplanned stop at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, in the news this week after the decision by the Cuban patron Ella Fontanals-Cisneros to give part of her remarkable collection of 3,000 works to a new art center in Madrid shared with the Reina Sofia Museum.

Both King and Queen were eager to greet Ella Fontanals-Cisneros.

Their last stop at this year’s fair, whose motto is The future is not what will happen, but what we do, after passing through the stands of  newspapers ABC and El Mundo, was in the hall of the Arco-Daniel Steegmann Mangrané Foundation. Among the pieces hanging there was the ironic message by groundbreaking Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri, called simply Work from Home.

Source: EL PAÍS