Thanks to MirArte we have been watching and participating in the exhibition of the Cranford Collection. Out of the House, at the Banco Santander Foundation. MirArte is a private entity that since 2001 is dedicated to educational and recreational programs of cultural promotion in which children have a leading role because they teach them to discover and participate while contemplating artistic performances.
In this case it is the Cranford Collection, a collection of works of art acquired by the Salem family over 13 years ago. The funniest feature of the exhibition is that the works that can be seen, and that are explained to the children, are part of the Salem house and actually coexist with them.
The young artists for whom the Salem bet are already consolidated as contemporary artists being one of the best known Damien Hirst. Hirst presents the work Something or nothing, from the year 2001, and it looks with a sculpture in the form of a shelf where you can see the skeletons of the fish in addition to more fish preserved in formalin. It is a spectacular work that plays with metal, mirrors, crystals, fish, dead and 'alive'. And I think the children are surprised because it encourages them to ask the monitor a lot of questions and to participate actively with her.
Other artists that appear in the exhibition and were reviewed with Eva, by MirArte, were: Jim Lambie and his furniture that catches colored slippers, Franz west and its industrial-looking furniture although usable and perfectly practical (the Salem used it), in addition to Mona Hatoum that surprised us with its screens with giant grater shapes.
In addition Eva, before the visit, taught the children Characteristics of Contemporary Art, which made them think and reflect on what they were going to see. And it is that artists who develop their works at the present time are difficult, provocative, spectacular, innovative and very controversial.
And as the end point of the exhibition, we made a fun workshop to which we bring house materials to work on them. In our case we took a box / can of gum and after the explosion of creativity we had seen, we decided to do a work that used it. The little girl is lately excited about rabbits and I like planets (or so she says), so playing with the idea of the planet, the explosions of colors, gum and rabbits we decided to make a planet in that the King was a jumping Rabbit. And so we represent as some colored garlands that emanated from the planet and that preceded the appearance of the Rabbit King Saltarín.
And there was a lot of participation and creativity of all the attendees who also presented and exhibited their work detailing the process that led them to obtain the final work. I liked all the work, because all children with a little imagination and encouragement are able to create great works. In addition, the materials made available to us by MirArte allowed us to develop our imagination.
Admission is free and the exhibition started on February 9 and will be in effect until June 16, 2013. It has a schedule from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The exhibition is held in the Santander Art Hall in the Santander Group City in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid). To sign up for the activities I recommend check the MirArte Facebook page to see family participation options. The workshops are held on Saturdays and Sundays until June 16, 2013 and there may still be free places to go with the kids.
