Reunió d’artistes

Reunió d’artistes – Isidoro Valcárcel Medina

Commissioners: Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta and Montserrat Torras
Photography courtesy of Genalguacil Pueblo Museo

His outstanding career has earned him the National Plastic Arts Award (2007) and the Velázquez Award (2015)

The artistic interventions of Isidoro Valcárcel Medina throughout his career have always been characterized by a rigor, a coherence and a commitment far removed from the more commercial areas of art. His artistic conception can be summed up in one of his statements: “art is a personal action that can serve as an example, but never has an exemplary value”. In this way, for him, art only makes sense when it makes us aware of and responsible for a personal reality, usually through the game of art itself.

He began his work with informalist painting and his only exhibition within this trend was held in 1962 at Galería Lorca in Madrid. Subsequently, his work falls within objective, constructivist and rational art and in 1967 he was selected for the First Constructivist Art Salon. In 1968, after a stay in New York, he made contact with minimalism.

From a phase called by himself “habitable painting” he evolves towards the construction of places through environments and performances. From 1972, his works are mainly done in urban spaces and his interventions in large dimensional spaces.

In 2007 he received the National Plastic Arts Award for the consistency and rigor of his work developed over four decades. Valcárcel Medina has also produced films, sound pieces, actions, architectural projects and books that function as examples and markers of situations. Both the historical trajectory and the most recent interventions reveal an attitude that is committed and alien to the dynamics of the art market.

In 2015 he was also recognized with the Velázquez Fine Arts Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, for “his solid and consistent career and his excellent contribution to art from the ethical, political and social”.

Considered one of the most relevant living artists in the history of Spanish art, he will be present at the Cool Days Festival with his particular undisciplined artistic practice. Their action will serve to maintain a unique dialogue with the inhabitants of the village of Artà and to reflect on what art is and what it means to be an artist. For two days we will be able to find Valcárcel Medina himself in the streets of the town conversing with everyone who wants to participate in this unprecedented performance specially conceived for the Cool Days Festival 2024.