Instituto Cervantes shows a creative dialogue between Spanish painter Marty and Kidlat Tahimik

Wolves at the Door. Cosmic Encounters

Artist: Enrique Marty (Salamanca, 1969)

Curator: Kristine Guzmán (Manila, 1974)

With the special participation of Kidlat Tahimik (Baguio, 1942)

Venue: Instituto Cervantes de Manila (Intramuros Branch)

What can result from the meeting of the Spanish painter Enrique Marty with the legendary artist from Baguio, Kidlat Tahimik? Wolves at the Door. Cosmic Encounters is a proposal by the artist Marty, a project partially born during his visit to the Philippines and meeting with Kidlat Tahimik. It is made specifically for the Instituto Cervantes de Manila, and based on a work in progress that he has been undertaking since 2013, in the form of short video-essays entitled All your world is pointless, in which Marty condenses his philosophical views on art, the world and humanity; and which serve, in most cases, as a starting point for a larger work.

Wolves at the Door is the title of Episode VII of All your world is pointless and represents the artist's first foray into volume animation, a completely artisanal technique that emerged in Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. The work revolves around the character of the German teenager Kaspar Hauser, an enigmatic figure who appeared in a square in Nuremberg on May 26, 1828. Apparently, he could not speak, nor could he stand up, walk or eat anything other than bread and water. His mental state sparked many hypotheses about his origins, and his end was equally mysterious.

His character was adapted for the big screen in 1974 by Werner Herzog under the title The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, and featured Kidlat Tahimik in his first role as an actor: an indigenous person exhibited as an attraction in a human zoo, like those indigenous tribes who participated in the General Exhibition of the Philippines at the Crystal Palace in Madrid in 1887. Marty incorporates the character of Kidlat Tahimik in his video, turning him into a shaman, an erudite to whom the young man turns after his liberation, transforming Herzog's tragic end into something more hopeful. Thus, the artist reflects on the construction of identity in a world that he finds meaningless.

The exhibition is completed with watercolor works, that served as a storyboard and the video Cosmic Encounters, a conversation between curator Kristine Guzmán, Enrique Marty and Kidlat Tahimik that took place in Baguio, in August 2024. The interview reveals many parallels in the works of the two artists such as the visibility of the “other,” materialized in the representation of Kaspar Hauser, and the role played by Kidlat Tahimik in the 1974 film.

Espacios Ocupados

The Espacios Ocupados Program comprises a series of artistic projects generated by the network of Instituto Cervantes centers through dialogue with local contexts (https://exposiciones.cervantes.es/espaciosocupados/). It began in 2021 and continues to grow, with the aim of creating an extensive platform that contributes to promoting knowledge of Spanish contemporary art and its creators.

About Enrique Marty

Enrique Marty (Salamanca, Spain, 1969) is an artist who compulsively records everything around him, and mixes this imagery with fantasy and violence to expose life’s comedic and dark undertones in theatrical installations, videos and paintings.

He has had landmark solo shows at the Reina Sofia Museum, MUSAC. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, DA2, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Gemeentemuseum, Kunsthalle Mannheim and most recently at the Antwerp Cathedral. His impressive group exhibition history includes participation at the Venice Biennial (2001 / 2005), PS 1 and ZKM. His works belong to important public and private collections such as MUSAC, Museo Patio Herreriano, Centro de Arte Caja Burgos, DA2, Fundación Marcelino Botín, Marugame Hirai Museum, Özyl Collection. Enrique has a Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Salamanca.

About Kristine Guzmán

Kristine Guzmán (Manila, Philippines, 1974) is an independent curator based in Valladolid, Spain and Film Commissioner at the Castilla y León Film Commission. From 2003-2009 and 2011-2022, she held the post of General Coordinator at MUSAC. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, where she curated several exhibitions of artists such as Enrique Marty, Isabel & Alfredo Aquilizan, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Javier Rodríguez Pino, Pamen Pereira and herman de vries. She was also the director of the exhibition and editorial series Post-Pandemic Cities.

Kristine is a graduate of Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas (Manila) with a Master’s Degree in Restoration Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She is currently completing a degree in Art History at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

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