Antoni Muntadas

About

Antoni Muntadas was an early pioneer of video and installation in the mid-seventies, and he has continued to work with photography, video, installation, audio recording, and urban intervention. Iterations of his iconic projects—such as Between the Frames: The Forum (1983–93), The Board Room (1985), and the ongoing series On Translation (1995– ) and The Construction of Fear (2008– )—have been widely exhibited at institutions and galleries in North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Over four decades, Muntadas has been creating these projects, which critically reflect on key issues in the configuration of contemporary experience. His aim is to detect and decode the control and power mechanisms through which hegemonic ways of seeing are built, exploring the decisive role played by the mass media in this process. In his works, which always have a clear processual dimension and often make a direct call for viewer participation, Muntadas uses a number of media, languages and discursive strategies, from interventions in public space to video and photography, from the publication of printed material to the use of Internet and the new digital tools, from multimedia installations to the organisation of multidisciplinary, collaborative research projects.

Muntadas participated in the 1977 and 1997 editions of Documenta, the 1991 Whitney Biennial, the 1983 São Paulo Biennial, the 2000 Havana Biennial, the 2002 Taipei Biennial, the 2004 Kwangju Biennial, the 2011 Istanbul Biennial, and the 2012 Paris Triennale curated by Okwui Enwezor. In 2005 he represented Spain at the Venice Biennale, where he realized a comprehensive project on the architectural evolution of the Biennale over its history. Recent surveys have included exhibitions at the Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona; Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City; Weserburg, Bremen; Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; and the Estaçao Pinacoteca, São Paulo. Just closing is “Entre/Between,” a major career-spanning exhibition at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, curated by Daina Augaitis.

Muntadas has received numerous honors, including awards from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Arts Electronica in Linz, Laser d’Or in Locarno, and the Premi Nacional d’Arts Plàstiques de la Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2005 the Spanish Ministry of Culture awarded him the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas.

Exhibitions

Exhibition Catalogues

Public Collections

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Donell Public Library, New York; Everson Museum, Syracuse. New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California; Rotch Library - M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts; University Art Museum, Berkeley, California; Artotheque, Grenoble; Caisse des Depots et Consignations, Paris; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Collection Tournereau-Bosser, Paris; Collecio Diari Avui, Barcelona; Collecio Tous/De Pedro, Barcelona; Deutsche Messe AG Hannover, Messegelaende, Hannover; Fons Regional d’Art Contemporain (FRAC) de France-Comte; Fons Regional d'Art Contemporain (FRAC) Corsica; Fons Regional d’Art Contemporain (FRAC) de Basse-Normandie; Fons National d'Art Contemporain, Paris; Foundation Danae, Poully, France; Fundacio Museu Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA); Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona; Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Museo de Vitoria, Vitoria, Spain; Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels; Sudwest L.B., Stuttgart; Videoteca Caixa de Barcelona; Fundacao de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Galerije Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia; Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; Museu de Arte Contemporanea, São Paulo; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas; The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada; National Gallery, Ottawa; Israel Museum, Jerusalem.