all roads lead to art

The various meanings that the act of walking entails are revealed in two simultaneous exhibitions in Santiago de Compostela. In CGA, roads III focuses on contemporary creation; creative pathsin the City of Culture, however, he displays an overwhelming encyclopedic will. Both converge on the Jacobean route as a destination for walkers, tourists and pilgrims and both think of art as that indelible mark that remains behind the steps.

It is perhaps the oldest practice in the history of humanity. We move to get to know the territory, also to conquer and enjoy it. From Paleolithic nomadism, the exodus of the Old Testament or the epic of Gilgameshuntil its contemporary drifts such as the political manifestation, the wandering through the aimless city of flânerie situationist, or the hiking trails. Time and space merge with us as we walk, build us up and even heal us.. The walking path has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration as a narrative conflict and also as an aesthetic experience.

Of these two exhibitions the lack of institutional planning is surprisingbeing able to take the opportunity to program a major exhibition event in two spaces, leaving perhaps the more contemporary part to the CGAC, whose collection has been linked to the Caminho since its creation in 1993, and, to the City of Culture, the historical report, which on this occasion begins in the 18th century, with 19th century landscape artists, such as Corot, Rusiñol or Regoyos, who coexist with contemporary artists such as Marina Abramovic, Julian Opie or Dora García.

[Reveal the surprising origin of the first inhabitants of Santiago thanks to their diet]

roads III is the third part of a CGAC exhibition project, preceded by roads i & IIin which since June 2021 they have been implementing, hand in hand with their curators Santiago elm It is Alberto Caixa, an exhaustive investigation from the collection to the production of specific pieces. In the City of Culture, your commissioner Montserrat Pis He invested everything in a single project that showcases an anthology of contemporary creation. While at CGAC there are fewer pieces, 14 artists, at CdC there are more than 100.

Exhibition tours differ substantially. At CGAC we found a clean assembly where the pieces breathe and at CdC they offer us a chaotic journey, without a plane, created to get lost. The project unfolds in a labyrinth of walls raised under the protection of the architectural superstructure with two distinct areas: one for immersive installations like Cristina Iglesias, Suspended Corridor IIa piece of braided iron from 2005 whose lattices create a text to be scrolled through or the disco balls of John M. Armleder, Global Summits XII2000, along with another smaller space for painting, photography or video installation.

At CdC its four thematic axes are confused in the tangle of pieces, techniques and historical periods

The objective of both exhibitions also differs, one more ambitious, the other more relaxedalthough some pieces and historical periods overlap.

Not only are the discourses of both exhibitions convergent. At CdC its four thematic axes: (Moving to create, Creative displacements, Art in progress and Moving the public) are confused in the tangle of pieces, techniques and historical periods that free the spectator from the tyranny of following a path and identifying it as flâneur accidental. CGAC affects the intrastory, more marginal and diverse stories that place the body in public spaces. Both house good pieces.

At CdC, big names that delight all audiences. From David Hockney's iPad-created path pieces, found landscape photos by Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, impressionist landscapes by Meifren Roig any Anglada Camarasaor the contemporaneity of Francis Alÿs in prohibited stepsmade during the pandemic, in which he walks blindly across the roof of the bungalow where he is confined, measuring his limits with his steps so as not to fall.

At CGAC, the impeccable photographs of caldas do mar of women who travel for work, the beautiful book-objects by Miguel Ángel Blanco in which he collects materials from his stay in Brión, the public exhibition as performance policy Kubra Khademiwith a metallic corset that restrains her body walking through the streets of Kabul or the first performance in Priscila Mongein which she makes her menstruation visible on the streets of San José de Puerto Rico in the year 98.

Two travel models, two institutional proposals for the same story in which the aesthetic experience articulates walking as epistemology, manifesto or contemplation and confronts us with ourselves, celebrating the diversity of the world and art. Even though some are tortuous, and even dead-end, choose your path.

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