Wolf Vostell built a sculpture for the 750 year jubilee of Berlin’s existence. The sculpture caused a sensation, it represents two Cadillacs stuck in cement walls. They look as if they intend to pierce through each other, but they cannot overcome the walls. The spectacle looks like a car accident because the cars do not stand on the street but are wedged. One of the cars stands on a bow, the other one drives steeply downhill. Vostell’s masterpiece was controversial. It represents human beings as simple dancers around a golden calf called automobile. Despite the clamour, the cemented Cadillacs still stand at Rathenauplatz in Berlin Wilmersdorf and were restored in 2006. Wolf Vostell seems to be fascinated by cars and road traffic: in 1969 he interred a brand new Opel Captain in a cemented case at the Hohenzollernring in Cologne. He entitled his work: resting Traffic.
When visiting the museum of this artist in Malpartida de Caceres, at the west of the province capital Caceres, you will wonder about the great number of cars. There is a kind of missile in the spacious area, in which several cars are incorporated. He called it “Why did the Trial between Pilatus and Jesus last only two minutes'”, or a cemented car that has driven into a concrete block. However cars are not the only theme Vostell is working on. The picture “Police Action” displays black figures struggling against a fluorescent yellow background. A leg appears out of the picture. The piece “Transhumancia IV” consists of metal parts piled up into a frightening and lugubrious hill.
Other artists from the Fluxus movement are also exhibited together with Vostell. A holster by Antonio Gomez is exhibited and contains crayons in place of weapon. The museum displays a ping-pong table by George Maciunas, who coined the phrase Fluxus. There are rackets on the table that are diverted from their intended use. One serves as a tray with drinking cups, the other is fixed with plates. The aim of the Fluxus movement to conceive life as music is clearly apparent through “Pianoforte luminoso”; a lighted piano by the artist Marchetti.
A museum in honour of the painter Juan José Narbon has recently been opened in the same town. Several paintings of the artist, who died in 2005, are displayed. The “Museo Extremeñoe Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo” has committed itself to improving the art from Spain and Latin America. Works by José de Guimarãs, Alvaro Lapa, Adolfo Schlosser and Luis Bruñel belong to the collection. The museum frequently organises highly respected exhibitions. “The discreet Charm of Technologie” in 2008, which remembers a movie by Buñuel, consecrates itself to the different possibilities of art building realities. The movie shows the first attempts of Spanish art of the 1960s to introduce the computer in art production. The exhibition ran in the Centre for Art and Media Technique in Karlsruhe, among others. Modern art enthusiasts will also love the small Casa-Museo Guayasamin that is situated in the inner city of Caceres. Oswaldo Guayasamin, who lived from 1919 to 1999, was a sculptor and painter and is considered as the most important visual artist of Ecuador in the 20th century. The museum exhibits mainly portraits.
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