Presentation of Tres Aguas (Three Waters)

The presentation of Cristina Iglesias’ book and project could be seen as an epilogue to the exhibition Metonymy, a 2013 retrospective on the artist held in the Museo. Tres Aguas (Three Waters) is a sculptural intervention in the city of Toledo that joins nature, history and landscape via three installations that interweave emblematic spaces and subtly allude to three cultures in the history of Toledo (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) to incorporate an impression of the present in an historical journey. The project Tres Aguas (Three Waters), the artist’s most expansive to date, formulates sculpture as superposed layers and historical strata, conversing with the city’s cultural history through the flow and instability of metaphorical water. Three divergent spaces – the square of the City Council, the Water Tower and the Convent of Santa Clara – in reference to civil architecture, industrial ruin and spaces of contemplation, are interconnected by a sequence that juxtaposes the public and private with diverse times and forms of reception. In contrast to the public sculptures that dominate the contemporary city, Tres Aguas does not offer a meaning as such, but instead dilutes sculptural intervention into a series of moments, spaces and rhythms that set in motion expanded choreography.

The artist is joined in the presentation by James Lingwood, co-director of Artangel (London), a co-producing institution in the project and Manuel Borja-Villel, Director of Museo Reina Sofía.

Participants:

Cristina Iglesias. An artist who has been actively working since the mid 1980s, in 1999 she won the National Plastic Arts Award and, representing Spain, has participated in various international biennales such as Venice, Sydney and Taipei, as well as exhibiting in different institutions like Kunsthalle Bern, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, in Eindhoven, Guggenheim New York and The Ludwig Museum, in Cologne, to name but a few. In 2013 she was the subject of the exhibition Metonymy - organised by the Museo Reina Sofía – a retrospective, curated by Lynne Cooke, that explored her output.

James Lingwood. Since 1991 he has worked as the co-director of Artangel, a foundation devoted to producing projects by contemporary artists such as Douglas Gordon, Steve McQueen, Francis Alÿs and Tony Oursler. As a curator, he has developed work on Thomas Schütte, Juan Muñoz and Thomas Struth, among others. He is also a trustee of The Art Fund and The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and is on the International Advisory Board of the Serralves Museum, Porto.

Manuel Borja-Villel. Director of Museo Reina Sofía.