Eclosion. The Fine Arts Centre in the 1980s and 1990s

The Fine Arts Circle will present an exhibition in the Picasso Room from 25 February to 10 May that reviews its period of transformation and its quest to become a multidisciplinary, innovative cultural centre aligned with the needs of its time.

The exhibition is set at the start of this transformation in 1983, when the institution launched a process of structural and conceptual change, which redefined its role in Spanish cultural life after years of difficulties and a limited programme, consolidating itself in the 1980s and 1990s as a benchmark open to contemporary debate with  an international projection.

The exhibition route focuses on a period marked by its opening to the general public and the creation of an open and experimental space where practical and theoretical education coexist, and where art, thought, music, film and architecture enter into dialogue. Leading international figures have passed through its doors, such as Susan Sontag, Jean Baudrillard, Guillermo Cabrera Infante or Massimo Cacciari; Nancy Spero, Julio Le Parc, Julian Schnabel or Luis Gordillo; Javier Vallhonrat, Eikoh Hosoe  or Lucien Clergue, among many others. In this context, pioneering initiatives have also emerged, such as the 1st National Video Festival, the FOCO Photography Festival or the Circle Group, aimed at incorporating emerging languages and practices in Spain.

Curated by Oliva María Rubio, the exhibition offers an articulated look at this renovation process and highlights the Circle’s capacity to reinvent itself as an open, plural and experimental place. Through works, photographic and audiovisual records and other archive material, visitors are invited to understand how the institution became a cultural driving force in just a few years that accompanied the creative awakening of democratic Spain. It is organised by the Fine Arts Circle with the collaboration of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).

Image Credit:

• Julio Le Parc and students in the Taller Al Le Parc del Retiro, 1985