The Community of Madrid have acquired new artworks, through the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sport. The acquisition, amounting to 405,000 euro, consists of works by contemporary artists who exhibited at ARCOmadrid 2022, including the winners of the ARCO Prize of the Community of Madrid. One winner of this edition of the International Contemporary Art Fair was the artist Cristina Mejías, (Alarcón Criado) for her video work Knot the Tongue, Grasp a Stream II (2021), which reflects upon how knowledge is produced, how it occupies a body and how it is passed along according to the intersubjectivity that constitutes every exchange.

 

The work of Cristina Mejías (Jerez de la Frontera, 1986) revolves around the concepts of time, narration and language as a set of symbols and signs that make up a system, or a known, shared code. Her most recent projects encompass video installations that occupy and transform a space. The use of video allows her to generate a narrative that unfolds in time during which a change, a rhythm or a story is produced.

 

 

The ARCO Prize of the Community of Madrid was founded in 2004 to acknowledge the best visual artists under 40 exhibiting at ARCOmadrid. Mejías´ artwork will be housed at Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles, whose collection has grown due to various prizes awarded at similar fairs.

 

In other news, The Reina Sofía is once again expanding its collection following this year´s edition of ARCOmadrid. The Standing Committee of the institution’s Royal Board of Trustees has approved the acquisition of a set of 16 works that will be assigned by the Ministry of Culture and Sport to the museum’s holdings for an pay out of approximately 370,000 euros. Among the various institutional and corporate purchases is the installation Recuerdo doble, temblor y vuelco (2022) by Cristina Mejías, which has been acquired by the International Council of the ARCO Foundation. The project explores the artisanal technique of flamenco guitar-making, and incorporates the same techniques and materials once used in the luthier´s workshop.