Painters, musicians and writers pay homage to the Granada poet at his summer retreat
AN exhibition featuring specially-commissioned works from more than 30 international artists has opened at the summer house of Federico García Lorca.
The retreat in Huerta de San Vicente, Granada, has been converted into an art gallery exhibiting modern tributes to the poet’s work, including music, photographs and paintings.
A total of 31 artists are included in the Everstill exhibit, which was curated by Hans Ulbrich Obrist, the Swiss co-director of international projects at Serpentine Gallery of London.
“For me, this exhibition is a reflection on death, something very compromising and inescapable in this house,” Obrist told the Olive Press.
“This house is like a sanctuary. The artists appearing in this exhibit have paid the utmost respect to both it and Lorca,” he added.
Pieces by the British-Italian artist duo Gilbert & George, famous for their matching suits and deadpan facial expressions, and flamenco singer Enrique Morente are featured in the exhibit, which was part-funded by the Federico García Lorca Foundation, the charity in charge of the house used by the poet from 1926 until his death ten years later.
In a photograph entitled In bed with Lorca, now hanging in the poet’s former bedroom, Gilbert & George lie side by side beneath a painting of the Virgin Mary like two corpses at a wake.
American poet and performance artist John Giorno has planted a “fountain of poetry” in the garden of the house, where Lorca wrote some of his most famous works including the theatre play Blood Wedding.
Explaining his ten-minute copla composed especially for the exhibition, Granada-born Enrique Morente said: “This is something that reminds us that Lorca walked in these very rooms.
“When I first visited this house many years ago, Granada did not speak of Lorca. I wanted to express this silence with my song.” added singer, who published an album based on the work of the poet in 1991.
The works are on display at Huerta de San Vicente until September 2008 when they will be moved to Madrid.
