El Bosco, El jardín de las Delicias ca. 1500 204 x 383 cm Depósito de Patrimonio Nacional en el Museo del Prado.
This project is based on the famous work of El Bosco, a reproduction of the permanent collection of Spain Museo Nacional del Prado, and two contemporary interpretations, one by the Spanish photographer José Manuel Ballester, national photography prize in 2010, and another by Chinese artist Miao Xiaochun, one of the most prestigious video artists in Chinese and international contemporary art.
It is organized as a dialogue between the three creations which realization thanks to the possibilities offered by the incorporation of new technologywith the service of artistic production of current times. The exhibition from two different perspectives: “past-future” and “East-West”, it showcases a subtle exchange that belongs to art, the creative inspiration in different backgrounds gather on the art platform of the Instituto Cervantes in Beijing to celebrate the meeting of cultures in today’s world.
About “The Garden of Earthly Delights”?
By Huang Du
It is well known that, the most famous masterpiece of El Bosco is “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (created in 1500-1505), this is a triptych created according to the “Bible” story, portraying three screens: the heaven, creation of Eve, and original temptation. From the left to right the painting form is the “The Garden of Eden”, “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, and “ Hell”. The left painting presents Adam and Eve together with various wonderful creatures in Eden; the middle painting presents a lot of naked bodies, big fruits and birds to describe the earthly delights; the right one is hell, filled with a lot of fantasy shaped jailers, with a variety of strange and cruel torture to punish the sinners. El Bosco’s painting depicts the evil and moral destruction of humans, often using demons, therianthropies and even mechanical images to express human evil.
José Manuel Ballester, El jardín deshabitado, 2008 204 X 383 CM Colección del artista 01
In the photography “El jardín deshabitado”, contemporary Spanish artist José Manuel Ballester used a computer to “clear” the characters and animals in El Bosco’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, so that it immediately turned into a pure landscape, which also changes spatial perspective and the order of the scenery. The original background shifts to be the subject. Fruits, trees, rivers, lakes, monster-like objects and other instruments represent different symbols and meanings.
José Manuel Ballester, El jardín deshabitado, 2008 204 X 383 CM Colección del artista 02
Different from Ballester, Miao Xiaochun’s video “Microcosmos” uses 3D technology, to create a dynamic world mixing the virtual and reality. Miao Xiaochun’s video “Microcosmos” isn’t intended to restore the historical authenticity of the image “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, but brings the image ancestry into the real scene, subjectively interpreting, translating, and deducing it into the narration and the morals related to reality.
Miao Xiachun, Microcosmos Cromogenic print (panel de 9 fotografías), Panel 200 x 550 cm Colección del artista
Generally speaking, whether El Bosco’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, or “El jardín deshabitado” by José Manuel Ballester, or Miao Xiaochun’s video “Microcosmos”, they unfold based on “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, to focus on the expression of the subjects: morals, criticism and crime, etc.
The exhibition is supported by Telefonica, China. It opens to the public 10:00-19:00 every day from May 9 to July 30.
About the artists
José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, born in 1960), painter and photographer, degree in Fine Arts in 1984 from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spanish Photography Award 2010. He began his artistic career with paintings focusing on the techniques of the Italian and Flemish Schools of the 15th and 18th centuries. Starting in 1990 he began to combine painting and photography. Among his numerous expositions we would like to point out “Lugares de Paso” (Valencia 2003), “Setting Out (New York 2003) or “Habitación 523” (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Dofia, Madrid 2005). Together with other artists he participated in numerous exhibitions such as ARCO, ART CHICAGO, ART FORUM GERMANY and PARISPHOTO in cities such as Dallas, Miami, Sao Paolo, Dubai, Peking, Shanghai, Toronto, and many others. In 1999 he was awarded the Spanish Etching Award. In 2006 he received the Goya Award for the Painting of Villa de Madrid and later in 2008 he was awarded the Photography Award of the Comunidad de Madrid. Recently, he received the Spanish Photography Award 2010 on 10 November from the Ministry for Culture. The jury voted by majority for him because of his personal history, his very peculiar interpretation of architectural space and light and his outstanding renovation of photographic techniques. His artworks are part of the collections of MNCARS, Marugame Museum for Contemporary Spanish Art in Japan, IVAM Valencia, Art Museum Miami and Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Miami, Central Academy of Fine Arts of Peking, Patio Herreriano, 21 Century Museum of Kentucky, Würth Museum, Telefónica Foundation, Banco Espiritú Santo and Coca Cola Foundation among others.
Beijing-based multidisciplinary artist Miao Xiaochun has been relentlessly expanding the boundaries of photography into the realm of new media. His recent work involves the development of paintings from the canon of Western art history into computer models. These works are expanded from their two-dimensional origins into a rich virtual space complete with enhanced depth and volume. The resulting large-scale photographs retain the semblance of the historical work, but are free from past temporal associations to become ephemeral and utterly contemporary. Miao Xiaochun is best known for his digital photographs, often assembled panoramas, of modern Chinese cityscapes. His signature element is the presence of “He”, a figure in ancient Chinese costume. Other works include computer graphics installations such as The Last Judgement in Cyberspace, a 3D monochrome reworking of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment from the Sistine Chapel replacing every figure with a virtual model of Miao himself.
About the exhibition
May 8, 2014, Thursday
15:00 Media preview at the exhibition hall
16:00 Opening discussion in the Multifunctional Hall (Spanish photographer José Manuel Ballester, Artist Miao Xiaochun, and critic Huang Du)
17:00 Open to the public
Host: Instituto Cervantes, Beijing
Duration: May 9 – May 30, 2014
Artists: José Manuel Ballester, Miao Xiaochun, El Bosco
Venue: Instituto Cervantes, Beijing
Address: A1 Gongti Nanlu 100020 Chaoyang Beijing (CHINA)
Partially translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue Wang/CAFA ART INFO.
Courtesy of the artists and Instituto Cervantes, Beijing, for further information please visit pekin.cervantes.es.
