ANECDOTES IN OBJECT. A 'confedrama' by Javier Peñafiel
My relationship with the CGAC has been crucial to my professional growth. In 2007, the museum published my book Mera coincidencia, which was presented in a confedrama (dramatised conference) held in its auditorium. It was a six-month initiative in Lisbon that laid the groundwork for Agencia de caducidad de los tiempos drásticos, my project for the 28th São Paulo Biennial, which was also presented as a confedrama.
The museum later purchased several of my works, from different stages; the latest distancia, miento (2011) was a project carried out in the archives of the Berliner Ensemble and Hans Bunge, in Berlin.
I met Misha approximately a decade ago and was able to have a very meaningful conversation with him. I admire both his work and his attitude, the superhuman depth of his research and his intuitive sense of the world. The idea of developing a confedrama based on his exhibition, as a journey through his sculptural practice and his publishing career, really fires me. I only need my voice.
Over the years, in conversations with both Misha and Juan de Nieves, I’ve taken a series of notes that have served as a starting point for drafting a text and a set of situated scenes.’
Javier Peñafiel
JAVIER PEÑAFIEL (Zaragoza, 1964) is a visual artist, researcher and lecturer. His artistic practice combines drawing, writing, video, performance and hybrid forms of knowledge production in his work, developed through long-term projects, publications and public initiatives.
He has been awarded three research and production grants by the Generalitat de Catalunya to carry out projects in New York (1997), São Paulo (2001) and Berlin (2011). He was also awarded funding by foundations such as Fundación MACBA (2021) and Fundación Botín (2009), among other grants, awards and support schemes, such as PICE and Acción Cultural Española.
He has taught as a guest artist at Eina, Elisava, the Universitat de Barcelona and the MACBA Independent Study Programme, as well as at the FAAP in São Paulo and several institutions in Chile. His work forms part of public and private collections held by institutions such as MACBA, “la Caixa” Foundation, the CGAC, Banco Sabadell, MUSAC de León, Es Baluard and the art collections of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
He is the author of monographs such as Mera coincidencia (CGAC), Agenda de caducidad de los tiempos drásticos (São Paulo Biennial), Conquista básica, te vuelvo a pedir que te definas, CRU006, No todo tanto, Fine Arts Unternehmen, Teatro dentífrico (2017), Colección AL, series and, more recently, La esfinge te prefiere (Museo de Teruel).
His long-term projects include Egolactante, proyecto para la corteza terrestre (1997-2026); Agencia de intervención en la sentimentalidad (1997-2001), which was developed across New York and Lisbon; Locución MerkelBachelet (2009-2011), across Valparaíso and Berlin, and La imposibilidad de la belleza en scroll (2019-2026), across Berlin and Bendinat.
Since 2008, he has been developing a hybrid format combining conferences, drawing and video, which he coins confedramas. These initiatives have been launched in cities such as Milan, Cali, Lisbon, Lugano, Buenos Aires, Medellín, Blenio, Haarlem or Cairo, among others, bringing the total to almost seventy editions.