ANTONI MUNTADAS – Galleria Michela Rizzo

Galleria Michela Rizzo is pleased to announce the exhibition Altrove/Elsewhere which will open on 07 October 2023. The group exhibition, curated by Bartomeu Marí, will present the works of Antoni Muntadas and Francesco Jodice.
From their singular perspectives and bodies of work, both artists have critically analysed and represented phenomena produced by different forms of globalisation in cultures, landscapes, cities and societies. Their work has an undeniable realist component and considers the practice of art as a form of knowledge, critical experience and commitment. The aesthetic perspectives and methodologies they have developed are strongly rooted in the evolution of technologies and mass media. They focus on their effects in the processes of construction and development of new local and collective identities as well as in the transformations of public spaces with the languages and behaviours that grew in them. Acting like critical ethnographers, their multidisciplinary practices include procedures echoing anthropology, economics, sociology or alternative and collaborative epistemologies.
This is not a retrospective exhibition. Instead, it treats works and motivations by both artists as threads that unfold in the rooms of the gallery. It doesn't seek to compare strategies or personal positions but rather suggests contrasts through conceptual and perceptual consonances. The artists share and dissent, inspire and produce counter-images and “other” narratives.

Unintentional approximations also occur at distance, for example through iconographic contrasts and scale jumps. Works of diverse nature, different materials and formats are brought together, offering unexpected prospects between the two artists. The work of one artist enhances the perception of the other, and vice versa.
The exhibition shows some of the main themes of constant interest for both Francesco Jodice and Antoni Muntadas. Urban and metropolitan phenomena appear as a 'text' in which the exercises of the economy, the media or political powers can be read. Their works reveal how global phenomena influence local landscapes, individuals and communities. The past and the present collide in the public sphere, often linked by a combination of vernacular and planetary
realities. In addition, rarely exhibited works are included, reflecting the processes of construction or erosion of political identities, commercial and national developments, dystopian expressions, digital technologies that enable us to navigate geographies, and finally outline a history 'constructed' by the media.

Critical text by Bartomeu Marí.

A special thanks to the lenders:
- ICCD_Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la
Documentazione
- Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz

Antoni Muntadas (Barcelona, 1942) is considered a pioneer of conceptual art and Media Art. Carrying out his artistic practice across different countries for over four decades, Muntadas has been able to produce consistent and uniform long-term research to create site-specific projects. Throughout his career, he has worked with photography, video, publications, the internet, installations, and urban interventions.

Through his works, the artist explores and analyzes historical, political, social, and cultural issues. Muntadas highlights how the appearance of every new medium creates expectations and many interesting prospects for creative use. However, these eventually end up being swallowed by the mechanisms of the industry, as well as the political and economic systems, which certainly modify and reduce these initial expectations, if not destroy them completely. According to Muntadas, art is a mix of perception and information: the former impacts us on an emotional level, while the latter connects us with the contemporary world we are already living in.

From 1977 to 1984, the artist was a researcher at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. He has also taught and conducted many seminars at various European and US institutions, including: the National School of Fine Arts, Paris; the Fine Arts Schools of Bordeaux and Grenoble; the University of California, San Diego; the Cooper Union, New York; and the University of Buenos Aires. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Visual Arts Program at the MIT School of Architecture in Cambridge and at the Iuav University in Venice.

His works have been exhibited at the following institutions: Documenta VI (1977) in Kassel; the Whitney Biennial of American Art (1991); Documenta X (1997); and the 51st Venice Biennale (2005). In 2011, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid dedicated a major retrospective to him, "Entre/Between", presenting the artist's journey from the 1970s to the present. In 2012, the exhibition was presented in Paris at the Jeu de Paume. Since 2011, he has been working on the Asian Protocols project, which was first presented to the public in 2014 at the Total Museum in Seoul, Korea, and in 2016 in Tokyo. In 2015, he was invited by the 72nd Venice Film Festival to exhibit his new work, "Dérive Veneziane"—a video projection dedicated to the city of Venice—in a public space. During 2016, Muntadas continued working on his artwork "About Academia" (2011), exhibiting it at De Appel in Amsterdam and at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. In January 2017, Muntadas held a solo exhibition, "Palabras, palabras...", at the Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz in Madrid.

He has received awards and fellowships from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Ars Electronica in Linz, the Laser d’Or in Locarno, the Premi Nacional de Arts Plàstiques from the Catalan government, and the Spanish National Award for Visual Arts in 2005. His most recent recognition is the Velázquez Award for Plastic Arts (2009) from the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Among his most recent exhibitions are: Muntadas. Exercises on Past and Present Memories, at Galleria Frittelli Rizzo, Milan (2026); Muntadas Lugar Publico, Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, 2025; Muntadas. Sobre / About Asia, Museo Casa de la Moneda, Madrid, 2025; Being Far/Being Close, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, 2024; Paratopias, Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona, 2024; Muntadas: Exercises on Past and Present Memories, Manila, 2023; Altrove/Elsewhere, Antoni Muntadas and Francesco Jodice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, 2023; Muntadas: Ejercicios sobre memorias pasadas y presentes, Ateneo Art Gallery in Manila, 2022; ¿PARA QUIÉN?, Montevideo, 2022; Muntadas. About Academia, Granada, 2021; Exercises on Past and Present Memories, Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG) and Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla (CAAC), Seville, 2021; CLOSED/LOCKED, New York, 2021; Muntadas. La Ciudad Vacía, Bilbao, 2021; FLASH 44: Antoni Muntadas since 1991, Stuttgart, 2021; Muntadas. (...), Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, 2020; and Muntadas. Interconnessioni, Villa delle Rose, Bologna, 2020.