This intervention is part of the Geysers programme
Raquel Friera’s work is based on performative strategies, historical re-readings, the presentation of parallelisms and slight shifts that configure critical views on relevant issues of the current moment.
In her previous works, the artist has made re-enactments of classic performances (by Bas Jan Ader, John Cage or Tehching Hsieh) in which the re-enactment made by a female figure generates shifts of meaning and new readings. She is co-creator, together with Xavier Bassas, of the Institute of Suspended Time that explores and proposes alternative forms of time that go beyond mere productivity.
The public presentation of the research carried out by Raquel Friera in the Geysers programme takes the form of a performance and fits into the framework of the current debate on the function of museums. The historical investigation of these functions takes Raquel Friera to the mid-nineteenth century, to the Louvre in Paris and to the National Gallery in London. And there he finds paintings (such as Giuseppe Castiglione’s Salon Carré, Louvre (1865) or Frederick Mackenzie’s The National Gallery at Mrs J.J. Angerstein’s House, Pall Mall (1824)) that show museum halls full of visitors who, in addition to looking at the works hanging on the walls, are also having meetings, naps or picnics. In this use of the museum as a public space, it was not only the free admission that was key, but also the layout of the rooms, which had movable and autonomous furniture that visitors could arrange according to their needs.
Crowded museums performance video
Raquel Friera’s performance, Crowded Museums (2023), recreates an interview conducted by the members of the Select Committee with the keeper of the National Gallery (1850) in which they discuss the tensions placed on the museum as a public space (with groups bringing food and drinks, small children dirtying the floor, inappropriate behaviour, etc.). The report itself already suggests a possible solution: regulations and access fees.
In this way, Raquel Friera’s performance addresses a hotly debated topic: the functions of the museum, in order to recreate the historical drift of museums, from a public space to a space of consumption.
Museums and res publica. From the performance Crowded Museums by Raquel Friera
