Fundación Proa opens its new new building in La Boca with an exceptional exhibition:
"Marcel Duchamp: una obra que no es una obra “de arte”, (Marcel Duchamp, a work that is not a work "of art") curated by Elena Filipovic, that includes 120 works and some of his most important "ready-mades", a combination or arbitrary arrangement of everyday objects.
Marcel Duchamp was born on July 28th 1887 in Blainville-sur-Crevon, a small town of Ruan, in the northeast of France. This French artist, who became an American citizen, is one of the most outstanding creators of 20th century.
Friend of Picasso, Matisse, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, and Braque, he revolutionized the intellectual world of his time when he presented a porcelain urinal as a work of art. In the beginning of 1917, Duchamp named the urinal Fountain and submitted it to the Exhibition of the Independents, a show without jury or prizes organized in Paris. As a result of this initiative, there was a controversy about what defines a ‘work of art’. Throughout his life, Duchamp wondered if any ordinary object with his signature and shown in a museum could be considered a work of art. That question has been left unanswered.
Between 1918 and 1919, apparently escaping from the war, Duchamp lived in Buenos Aires. There is very little information about his stay, only a few letters sent to his friends, colleagues and relatives. When he found out the war was over, he went back to Paris.
Marcel Duchamp died at 81 years old in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, on October 2nd 1968. After his death, there were important retrospectives both in the USA and Europe, such as the ones in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tate Gallery and the Pompidou Centre. 40 years after his death, Fundación Proa presents for the first time in Lartin America a solo exhibition of Marcel Duchamp.
Together with the opening of the exhibition, there will be the First International Colloquium about Marcel Duchamp in Buenos Aires, a debate on the influence of the artist’s works. The Colloquium will be coordinated by Paul Franklin, editor-in-chief of the prestigious magazine Etánt donné Marcel Duchamp, yearly publication of the Association pour l'Étude de Marcel Duchamp (Association for the study of Marcel Duchamp)
Dates: November 22nd 2008 through February 1st 2009.
Location: Fundacion Proa. Avenida Pedro de Mendoza 1929. La Boca.
More information: Fundacion Proa website.
