Crystal Palace Madrid Interior

by Joan Carroll

Title

Crystal Palace Madrid Interior

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Photography And Digital Art

Description

I arrived in Madrid Spain after an overnight flight and had about 6 hours to kill before catching my train to Tarragona Spain. I decided to spend some of that time in the Buen Retiro Park, which sits across from the Atocha Train Station. I made my way toward the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace), an area of the park I had never been to. I don’t know what I expected other than an iron and glass structure, but since there were a lot of people coming and going from the building, I made my way there. Once there I was treated to one of the most amazing and profound ‘art exhibitions’ I have ever been to. The exhibition was entitled “The ship is going under, the ice is breaking through” by Lothar Baumgarten. The first thing you noticed was the silence of the crowds. People were either sitting or tiptoeing around. Then you hear the sounds of the exhibition, some softer some deafening some crashing. The sounds echoed and reverberated all around you until it felt like they were within your bones. Knowing nothing about the exhibition, I just let it wash over me. It was only later that I learned more. For this exhibition, Lothar Baumgarten concentrates on the fragility of the domed glass structure of the Palacio de Cristal to create a sound sculpture from a series of audio recordings of ice thawing on the banks of the Hudson River in upstate New York, which he recorded from 2001-2005. He makes the sounds into an artistic reaction through metaphor to the current world situation. Curators of the show describe it thus: “In this world, many boats are sinking, there are many storms which affect millions of people. The cracking ice talks of the cracking economy, of a building that is on the verge of collapse, it talks of an economy suffering a great deal and possibly irreversibly through this progress made by humanity”. It is also described as “Within the transparent architectural structure, the deafening sound of the ice becomes a tonal analogy for the crashing stocks and assets of the insatiable financial markets; it concerns greedy speculation about unlimited economic growth and the resulting impact on the dramatically changing global climate.” The Palacio de Cristal is one of the two exhibition venues of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The Palace was originally conceived as greenhouse for the “Exposicion de Flora de las Islas Filipinas” (1887). The structure of the Palace is made by iron and large crystal surfaces. Since 1990, the Palacio de Cristal hosts projects and installations by contemporary artists.

FEATURED PHOTO, Images That Excite You group, 10/20/17

FEATURED PHOTO, Pin Me - Daily group, 10/19/17

FEATURED PHOTO, The Road To Self Promotion group, 10/14/17

Joan carroll, monument, old, landmark, outdoors, tourist, window, tourism, interior, bow, blue, architecture, arched, cupola, famous, europe, dome, arch

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October 13th, 2017

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