Leaflet (pdf)

The exhibition displays the deposit recently ceded to Artium by the collector Juan Redón. It is a selection from the funds of his private collection consisting of 63 art pieces, among which we can find 58 photographs, two paintings, two installations and a graphic work.
The architect Juan Redón, borne in Valencia and currently living in Barcelona, started his collection in 1994 with an art piece by the artist Juan Pablo Ballester. During the following years his main interest has been the acquisition of photographic works belonging to the last decade, created either by national artists such as Txomin Badiola, Alberto García-Alix and Carlos Pazos, or international ones, like Pierre Gonnord, Robert Gligorov, Erwin Olaf and Edward Lucie-Smith. The highly provocative and risky Juan Redón collection, heavily loaded with homo-erotic elements, gathers works in which portrait, masculine nude bodies and the thoughts about identity and sexual tendency come to light. This transgressive tone has developed with time into something more solid. In words of the collector, it means conceiving a collection as an intellectual project, being its target the explanation of the world though the artists' vision although reorganised and restructured from the collector's perspective.
Out of these funds, eight art pieces by the Cuban artist, currently living in Barcelona, Juan Pablo Ballester, are on display. His photographs entitled “En ningun lugar” (no were) depicts Latin youngsters and sons of immigrants who, unrecognisable in either interior or exteriors places, stare at the spectator. The collection also includes photographs of Alaska in black and white, as well as porn actors taken by Alberto García-Alix, national award in photography 1999.
Two works by Alex Francés show the human body in its most essential shapes, loaded with a great aesthetic sense, inducing the visitor to think about human inner fights and conflicts. The polemical work of the Californian artist De Lagrace Vocano, photographer of the drag-king world, gathers ironic photographs of transsexual women that proudly show their masculine features to mock the prototypical macho attributes. Sixteen colourist pieces of the series Common Sense by the British artist Martin Parr are part of the exhibition. This series was displayed during 1999 in 43 different venues. Photographs of junk food and cheep toys refer to the excessive consumerism of contemporary society. The exhibition is completed with pieces of fifteen other artists.

Works by the following artists on display:
Txomin Badiola
Edward Lucie-Smith
Juan Pablo Ballester
Jake & Dinos Chapman
Equipo Límite
Alex Francés
Rafa Garay,
Alberto García-Alix
Robert Gliglorov
Pierre Gonnord
Del Lagrace Volcano
Angel Marcos
Santos Montes
Edwin Olaf
Carlos Pazos
Alberto Peral
Miguel Rio Branco
Joan Morey
Eugenio Vizuete
Martín Parr

What is an art deposit?
Museums can increase their collections, not only by means of donations or by the purchase of artworks, but also through temporary or permanent deposits granted by private collectors or institutions owning one or more works of art. Different reasons may induce them to believe that their collections may fulfil a better social function in a museum than if they keep them for their self-enjoyment. The museum of course must be conscious that those works of art will help to better fulfil its social and artistic objectives.
When an agreement between the owners of the artworks and the museum is reached, the later commits itself to protect and preserve the work as if it were part of its own collection. As soon as the works have reached the museum, they are catalogued and restored, if necessary. Thereafter, they are ready to be displayed in the museum or lent to other institutions with the owner's consent. These deposits can either be temporary or permanent according to the interest of both sides. This important set of works belonging to the Juan Redón collection has been ceded to Artium Álava for a renewable period of five years.
The museum has recently reached an agreement with the family of the artist from Jaén, Rafael Zabaleta in which a set of more than twenty works of art have been ceded.