黑料不打烊

Internationally acclaimed authors explore Spain鈥檚 leading collection of contemporary art in this series of four displays taking place over the course of a year.

A haunting portrait by Gerhard Richter, I.G , features a nude with her back to us, facing a dark interior. Nearby, in a video installation by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, a young girl is seated on the floor in a glass room as ghostly images appear behind her. These enigmatic works were chosen from 鈥漧a Caixa鈥� Collection of Contemporary Art by the preeminent Spanish novelist Enrique Vila-Matas for his display Cabinet d鈥檃mateur, an oblique novel. Known for metafictions that blend genres, he uses these works to meditate on his literary and artistic influences in a new text accompanying this display.

Vila-Matas seeks truth through fiction and values 鈥榯he ambiguity of experience鈥�. A video by Dora Garc铆a features a girl receiving strict instruction on how to perform breathing exercises. In a staged self-portrait by Carlos Pazos the artist appears lost in melancholic reverie at a Barcelona nightclub. These small dramas contrast with seemingly timeless landscapes. A mixed media painting by Miquel Barcel贸 and a digitally collaged photograph by Andreas Gursky take a ground level and an aerial perspective on the land, where the human figure is absent or minute.

This display is the first of four from 鈥漧a Caixa鈥� Collection of Contemporary Art, established in 1985 to foster dialogue between Spanish and international art. Whitechapel Gallery has invited leading authors to curate the displays and to contribute a fictional text based on their selection.