The pairing contemporary art and Alaior has begun to walk after the opening in early June of a new exhibition space located in the historic center. A spectacular collection of 146 works, donated free of charge by various private collectors to the city council, which invite you to take a walk with artists of national and international projection such as Joan Miró, Miquel Barceló, Antoni Tàpies or Jaume Plensa, among many others.
In this sense, LÔAC Alaior Art Contemporari is presented as the only public exhibition of a collection of these characteristics in Menorca and aspires not only to project itself as a powerful tourist attraction pole of cultural tourism, as explained by its mayor, José Luis Benejam, but also also as the starting point for other initiatives around art in the municipality itself, from which local artists can take advantage.
LÔAC also has another small exhibition space located in a nearby old church where it has taken the opportunity to exhibit in an unprecedented way the works of an icon of contemporary art and a pioneer of performance, the Serbian Marina Abramovic, recently awarded the Princess Prize Asturias de las Artes. The new equipment has already begun to awaken the interest of visitors and since they were inaugurated, they are receiving an average of one hundred people a day.
SET. The building where LÔAC has been located adds four hundred meters of exhibition space that the council has conditioned to use to house an exquisite collection of works of great value of contemporary painting, sculpture and graphic work whose variety and consistency seeks to offer a coherent exhibition discourse that is distributed over two floors of the property.
THE VISIT. The visitor can contemplate and enjoy the work of reference authors who are participants in groups such as ‘El Paso’, and worthy representatives of currents such as realist, informalist, kinetic, abstract expressionism or surrealism, among others.
Outstanding examples are the work of Miró, represented through the sculpture La Boulangère, an ode to the bakers or three of his etchings and aquatints such as Marechal des Logis, Le Tambour-Major, and L’Otarie Savante, the Seiche Adulte de Miquel Barceló, the vibrant representation of a cuttlefish on the seabed that captivates by the use of superimposed and cracked layers that seem to give life to the animal, a surprising four-meter work by Jaume Plensa that evokes a giant squid or portraits through of which Antonio Saura paid tribute to Pablo Picasso and his lover Dora Maar, among the various artists present.
The self-portrait is another of the leading genres of LOAC, with well-known names such as Juan Barjola, Louise Bourgeois, Max Beckmann, Chuck Close, Foujita, Penck or Kiki Smith without forgetting works of engraving, a technique very attached to the island. the work of Minorcan artists such as Matías Quetglas has been included.
On the second floor there is a section dedicated to self-portraits in which an area with mirrors has been set up so that children but also adults can practice this genre so decisive in the history of art by drawing pictures.
From the consistory they contemplate organizing guided visits for schoolchildren throughout the year and one of the requests of the collectors who have donated the works is to bring art closer to the little ones.
This summer the Alaior Art Contemporani will have its doors open from Tuesday to Sunday in the morning and afternoon with the purpose that also in low season it is a place that can be visited by all audiences.
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