Ligia Canongia /// José Damasceno. Re-inventing Places

The vital issue in Coordenadas y apariciones (“Coordinates and Apparitions”) is a result of the Reina Sofía Museum’s challenge to the artist José Damasceno to activate spaces not normally used for exhibitions and endow them with a poetical character. For the first time, both institution and artist have embarked upon the adventure of exploring the potential of an area usually dormant due to its conventional uses. The unprecedented reconquest of these spaces will divert the spectator’s gaze to points of transit, to purely functional areas of little value now framed in a fictional context containing proposals specially designed to take over the museum’s public spaces. This kind of diversion is essential for what we might call “looking for the first time”, i.e. discovering or re-inventing works and where they are positioned.