Multimedia

The educational program Sound familiar?, for children and accompanying adults, consists of an interactive visit through some of the rooms of the Collection. It was designed by Pablo Martín Jones and is also performed by him, along with Raúl Márquez and David Escudero. Sound familiar? This activity is an educational and artistic project that offers a musical interpretation of certain pictorial works of the second and fourth floor of the Museo Reina Sofía Collection, in order to explore sensibilities other than the exclusively visual approach to different works of art.

Nacho Criado (Mengíbar, Jaén, 1943 – Madrid, 2010) is considered one of the most important figures in the last 40 years of experimental art in Spain. The Palacio de Velázquez, one of the Museum's venues in Parque del Retiro, offers a retrospective of his work, providing insight into the multitude of media, practices and homages present in his art, and also their material realization. The Palacio de Cristal, the other Reina Sofía venue in the park and the second site of the retrospective, reconstructs the 1991 exhibition Piezas de agua y cristal, where cultivated mushrooms exemplify the 'collaborating agents' that give this exhibition its name.

Conversation with Lynne Cooke, the exhibition curator, and the artist Sharon Hayes (Baltimore, Maryland, 1970). Using methodological and conceptual strategies drawn from various spheres of discourse, Hayes' projects explore the relations between history, politics and language, using performances, videos and installations to create a collective imaginary. These processes of documenting a historical event end up conditioning the gaze of the individual, leading to a critical reflection about the frictions generated between the public and the private.

Conversation with Lynne Cooke, the curator of the exhibition devoted to the German artist Rosemarie Trockel. Trockel's work explores different methods and a wide range of materials, thereby eluding classification. Her creations question the legitimizing categories of art, social order and gender identities. Also, in this collection, Trockel gives her attention to lesser known artists, chosen out of the empathy she feels for the frankness and inventiveness with which they look at questions that she too asks herself.

In this video, Walter Grasskamp, art historian and critic, and Hans Haacke himself present the exhibition Castles in the air. Associated with North American conceptual art and a pioneer of what is known as institutional critique, Haacke, through his work, questions museum, political and economic institutions in the context of today's globalized society.

This video looks at Museo Reina Sofía's Collection 3, giving special attention to the set up of the exhibition and to the contributions made by Manuel Borja-Villel, the director of the Museum, Rosario Peiró, the head of the Collections Department, and Jesús Carrillo, the head of Cultural Programs. Learning about the set-up process helps expand visitors' vision and enriches their understanding of this section of the newly arranged Collection, starting with the projection of works in the exhibition rooms where the stories are told, with commentary by the people directly involved.

In this video, the director of the Museum, Manuel Borja-Villel, the head of the Collections Department, Rosario Peiró and the head of Cultural Programs, Jesús Carrillo, discuss some of the key ideas that make up the new Collection rooms. The visit, which covers the two floors of the Nouvel building, explores a field in continual expansion: practices that no longer follow a single direction but rather come from positions that are not only markedly different, such as tropicalism and feminist art, but also from artistic practices that overlap with one another and others that choose to intervene in repressive contexts such as the dictatorships in Spain and Latin America.

Conversation with Daina Augatis, curator of the exhibition, and the artist Antoni Muntadas on Entre/Between. This exhibition, structured into nine blocks or "thematic constellations" is a complex, non-linear reading of Muntadas' work. In it numerous collaborative and multi-disciplinary projects are shown, from the early years to the piece Situación 2011, created especially for this exhibition.

Conversation with the artist Soledad Sevilla about her exhibition in the Palacio de Cristal, in Madrid's Parque del Retiro, where she created an installation specifically for this site. Language, geometry, light and the spectator's experience are some of the elements that contribute to this exhibition. A large aluminum structure and a series of polycarbonate panels recreate a night sky dotted with linguistic signs.

João Fernandes and François Piron, the exhibition curators, analyse the influence of Raymond Roussel, an essential figure in the history of literature and a source of inspiration for visual artists and authors from other disciplines. The legacy of Roussel's poetic-literary universe permits a transversal reading of the history of 20th century art.

Manuel J. Borja-Villel, the exhibition curator, presents the artist Elena Asins' work and discusses the key elements of her role and her contributions to the history of art. In addition, the artist herself contextualizes her work following her collaboration with the Computation Centre, and analyses the multiple media and formats used in her artwork (concrete poetry, drawing, video...).

Roland Groenenboom, curator of the exhibition, and Dominic van den Boogerd, art critic and director of De Ateliers, present in this video the ironic and imaginative work of René Daniëls. Along with his pictorial works, other materials and documents reflect the complex and conceptual work of this Dutch artist, who makes constant references to literature and daily life.

In this video Lynne Cooke and Christian Rattemeyer, the curators of the exhibition, present the largest retrospective show to date on the Italian artist Alighiero Boetti. Initially linked to the Arte Povera movement, Boetti soon began to develop conceptual work, based on ideas concerning duality, the sensory and time, examined with the subjectivity of the artist.

Reinventing Space marks the inauguration of a new initiative in which young artists collaborate with the Museum in creating workshops designed for children. Exhibitions by Yayoi Kusama, Lygia Pape and Elena Asins serve as the context and material for the workshop.

Conversation with the artist Maja Bajevic (Sarajevo, 1967) about her exhibition at Palacio de Cristal, in Madrid's Parque del Retiro. In this project, the artist analyses the consequences of historical and political conflicts and the impact they have on society.

Lynne Cooke, curator of the exhibition, presents the work of this singular, self-taught artist who was born completely deaf in Idaho. The exhibition offers a panoramic vision of the work of James Castle, an artist who invented his own way of showing and telling. Because of his deafness, he never learned to speak but he developed an imaginary all his own, nowadays described in terms such as primitive, marginal or visionary, in an attempt to unravel the complexity of his production.

Teresa Velázquez, curator of the exhibition, presents the work of the Brazilian Lygia Pape, an artist closely linked to the Neo-Concrete movement, which appeared as part of the strong current of renovation and modernism that swept Brazil in the 1950s. This exhibition shows the multidisciplinary nature of the artist's work, in terms of both themes and formats, which range from film to performance art and from painting to books, among others.

In this retrospective, Frances Morris, head of international collections at Tate Modern and curator of the exhibition, presents the work of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, an essential figure in contemporary, post-war art. The exhibition allows visitors to get to know her multiple facets, from her contacts with Pop art, to her art installations and interventions in public spaces.

What is the role of video in relation to the art institution? What paths and currents has video followed between its arrival and the current situation in Spain? This video comments on the program Video era. Setting and potential (80-00), held at the end of May 2011, which seeks to answer such questions, with a combined format of debate and screenings on four different dates.

Jon Bird, curator of the Leon Golub exhibition, explores the contemporary relevance of the artist's painting from various perspectives. First of all, how it brings historical painting up to date; secondly, how it conceives of the body; and thirdly, what the role of the viewer is.

In this interview Jorge Ribalta, the curator of the exhibition A hard, merciless light. The worker-photography movement, 1926-1939, proposes a journey through the documentary practices of the worker movements of the interwar period, emphasizing the appearance of a new notion of photographic modernism, one linked to social movements and the document