Throughout its history, the CGAC has been widely recognised for the spectacular and sensory appeal of the specific installations and interventions carried out in the museum’s iconic spaces—such as the lobby, the Double Space, the terrace, the façade and even the park. If there’s one thing the building housing the museum, designed by the Portuguese national Álvaro Siza Vieira, has stood out for, it’s for the versatility and multiple possibilities it offers for dialogue between art and architecture.

The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the CGAC also seeks to establish its spaces as places open to artistic experimentation and reinterpretation and shows how wise it was at the time to take a firm commitment to risk in order to consolidate the centre’s prestige.

Here at the museum, we’ve sought to make the most of this occasion by revisiting one of the most impressive installations of the space’s trajectory, but also to invite two artists, Almudena Fernández Fariña and Suso Fandiño, who recently participated in the mid-career exhibition programme launched by the museum in 2016, to carry out, respectively, two specific interventions inside and outside the building.

ALMUDENA FERNÁNDEZ FARIÑA. FLOWER AND ACANTHUS

Hall

11 July 2023 - 14 January 2024

As part of her solo exhibition Stepping in Puddles and as an expression of her most installation-based or expanded painting work, Almudena Fernández Fariña will execute site-specific painting on the lobby walls of the centre. This painting project connects the plans and the lines of the building by Siza Vieira with the acanthus leaves on the front of the church of the neighbouring San Domingos de Bonaval Convent.

Video of Almudena Fernández's intervention at the CGAC

SUSO FANDIÑO. THE CGAC IS HERE

Terrace

11 July - 29 October 2023

Suso Fandiño’s intervention, on the other hand, will consist of the installation in the terrace of the construction of an illuminated sign designed as an affirmation of the presence of the museum in the urban and social fabric of Santiago de Compostela. In O CGAC está aquí, Fandiño uses the classic ‘You are here’ symbol of tourist maps and places it in a spot that is visible at any time of day or night both from the adjacent street and other more distant sites in the city.

The artist had already repeatedly used this same icon on military maps of Syria in a series belonging to the CGAC Collection, although in this case he does so with a different purpose—to highlight the relativity of the information with regards to the space as a resource for memory and conscience.

ERNESTO NETO. THE DEPTH OF THE BODY, THE WAVE

Double Space

29 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

A profundidade do corpo. A onda is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and memorable installations in the museum’s history. Conceived by Ernesto Neto for the solo exhibition A paisagem do corpo e o corpo da paisagem, organised by the CGAC in 2001, this piece uses turmeric and clove inside a flexible form of lycra that fills the Double Space. The piece recalls the organic forms inside the body, entrails maybe, distorted by a certain surrealist-rooted vision. Ernesto Neto's work during those years is characterised by the creation of penetrable spaces that turn into settings and he often uses spices to encourage an olfactory experience. Thus, the whole body becomes immersed in the aesthetic experience and, in this specific case, the architectural dimension of gigantic proportions highlights the dreamlike nature of the work.