The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) will inaugurate the exhibition "Filip Custic in conversation with César Manrique" next Friday, May 17, at 8:00 p.m., in the Gallery room of its headquarters in Taro de Tahíche. Curated by Belinda Martín Porras, the exhibition's central content is the reinterpretation of a mobile sculpture from the "Wind Toys" series developed by Manrique.
Starting at 8:30 p.m., the multidisciplinary artist María Forqué, under the name Virgen María, will offer a one-hour performance where the performance, which consists of combining the divine from a sensual/earthly and metaphysical/spiritual point of view, is as relevant as the music, which will go from electronic to jazz in an experimental attempt to bring these styles closer together.
To complete this exhibition experience, which will be attended by creators from various disciplines such as designer and DJ Miranda Makaroff, photographer Carlota Guerrero, and influencer Paula Caryatides, among others, the FCM will organize a cocktail in the pool area and in two of the bubbles of what was once described as "one of the most inconceivable homes in the world."
Filip Custic's installation will be a total experience that combines sculpture, 3D animation, video art, sound, and augmented reality. The main piece is a hyperrealistic kinetic sculpture based on a mobile by César Manrique, made to Custic's scale and likeness. Its title is: (hyperrealistic ego) + (wind toy) =
The sculpture is surrounded by glass plates that generate various light and optical effects, which, together with the internal motor of the piece, achieve its movement. The piece is animated by the reference to Manrique's work. While the motor of the mobile sculptures was the wind, nature, for Custic the motor becomes something that is inside the work itself and the subject.
The exhibition will also take place in the digital world, which Custic always tries to combine with the physical. To this end, the artist has developed an Instagram filter of his humanoid replica, which will be an active part of the exhibition and will allow the viewer to interact with Manrique's legacy in an unprecedented way. With this action, Custic not only generates a limbo between online and offline reality, but also seeks to create a synthesis between nature, technology, and the whole of humanity that is also part of the exhibition experience.
The idea of the exhibition, which can be visited from May 17 to September 1, is to recover the work of César Manrique to integrate it into our present, through the work of Custic. The artist takes up Manrique's innovative and pioneering character, updating the maxim that art is an organic process capable of positively transforming not only the natural environment, but also the psychic and physical characteristics of the human being.
Biography of Filip Custic
Filip Custic (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1993) is a Spanish-Croatian artist who lives and resides in Madrid whose artistic practice combines photography, performance, sculpture and video art. As a creative director and fashion photographer, he has worked for Opening Ceremony, VOGUE, Fucking Young!, GQ UK, Esquire, Camper, Visionare, Rosalía or Palomo Spain, among others.
Currently his work explores what it means to be human in our present and immediate future, as well as the impact of digital technologies on our consciousness and sense of identity. His latest exhibitions include Homo-?, La Térmica, Málaga (2019); Presente mental, Centro Cultural de España, Montevideo (2019); Laberinto de espejos, performance for Absolut Manifesto 19 - We Are A New World, Madrid (2019); THE SEARCH FOR (MODERN) PLEASURE, MIRA Festival, Barcelona (2018); Les Rencontres d'Arles (2018); PHotoEspaña 2018, Madrid; The Gathering. La Noche Warhol, Caixa Forum Madrid (2018); Patafísica: Suspensión, Fragmentación, James Fuentes Gallery, New York (2017).
Belinda Martín Porras (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1993) is an art historian, researcher and editor of the MTArt Journal. She currently combines her curatorial projects with her doctoral thesis in Art and Classical Literature at King's College London, where she resides. Her research focuses on the concept of the monstrous as an aesthetic phenomenon in Greco-Roman culture, as well as in our contemporaneity. She has previously worked as an assistant curator in various spaces and centers dedicated to contemporary and classical art, such as the Max Estrella Gallery, Madrid; the Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins and King's College London.
