Walid Raad exhibit at the Thyssen Museum

On October 6, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza will be holding the official opening of "Cotton Under My Feet", a project created by Lebanese artist Walid Raad expressly for the Madrid art gallery founded in 1992. 

Coinciding with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the museum’s founder, Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, "Cotton Under My Feet" is an exploration of the museum’s genesis, art collections and archives, as well as the history of four generations in a family committed to art, in an exhibition that gives visitors a closer look at the collection’s origins and future.

"Cotton Under My Feet" is the result of three years of research and experimentation, and in it Raad revisits and imagines the founder’s legacy, and more specifically the acquisition of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection by the Spanish State, in an exhibition open to the public until January 23, 2022.

This is the second commission by TBA21, a foundation that has been carrying out highly innovative artistic projects since it was first established in 2002. It has also collaborated closely with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza on the design and execution of this work.

In addition to the exhibition, a series of lectures and performances are planned by the artist himself. These performative tours, given the title “Two Drops Per Heartbeat,” will be held from October 6 to 16 in the museum’s exhibition hall.

Walid Raad (Chbaniyeh, Lebanon, 1967) is a renowned multimedia artist based in New York, where he teaches at the Cooper Union School of Art. Through his works, he explores the influence that violent historical events have on our bodies and minds, as well as on culture. To do this, he does not hesitate to use a wide variety of media, including installations, performance art, videos and photography. His most notable projects include "The Atlas Group" (1989-2004), in which he dealt with Lebanon’s contemporary history.  His work has been exhibited at numerous fairs and exhibitions, such as Documenta 11 and 13, the fourteenth Istanbul Biennial, the first Vienna Biennial, the thirty-first Sao Paulo Biennial and the fiftieth Venice Biennial. He has also held solo exhibitions at major museums and galleries in Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Stockholm, New York, Boston, London, Berlin and Seoul, as well as others.