This monumental piece, for which it was completely transformed an old industrial building that was destined to the manufacture of voussoirs, had not been exposed completely since its creation for the Turbine Room of the Tate Modern. In the year 2015 the space of Hangar Bicocca of Pirelli, in Milan, presented an exhibition, by Vicente Todolí curator, that counted on the partial installation of Double Bind.
The most impressive of this work is the perception of light in three layers of different actions that recreate two conflicting conditions, light and darkness, without any of them being ignored. The upper space is where the elevators take center stage, the light spills over the entire surface; the lower space, dark, drilled by wells of light that serve as a space guide to the visitor where you can see the spaces created around these wells observing the different figures of Juan Muñoz; and the intermediate space, only visible from below and that houses those architectures through which the figures move.
As curator James Lingwood explained, Double Bind is a play on words and also a concept coined by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson and used in a therapeutic context by Milton H. Erickson. The Double Bind is based on the contradiction paradox.
Near the work has been installed a documentation center that brings knowledge about the piece and about the artist through drawings and annotations of Juan Muñoz himself, catalogs and a selection of sound pieces.
PLANTA is developing a new 7,500 m² museum project designed by Ábalos + Sentkiewicz | Architects. In the coming months, the project of Sorigué and its foundation will host different site-specific works by great artists such as William Kentridge, Bill Viola and Wim Wenders, among others.
About DOUBLE BIND
Double Bind was created in the year 2001, as a project specifically conceived for the Tate Modern Turbine Hall as part of the “Unilever Series”, where it was curated by James Lingwood and Susan May. This installation was the second proposed in what was known at the time as the “Unilever Series”, whose objective is to invite contemporary artists to respond to the colossal entry space of the Tate Modern museum, designed by architects Herzog & De Meuron.
The first to participate in this program was the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, followed by Juan Muñoz. This space has been occupied by some of the world’s most important artists, who have established new paradigms to express the relationship between art and space, including Doris Salcedo, Tacita Dean and Anish Kapoor.
In 2000, Tate Modern invited Muñoz to create a work for this space. This was the same year in which he was awarded the National Prize for Visual Arts by the Spanish Government. To date, he is the only Spanish artist to have participated in the Tate project. For Juan Muñoz, Double Bind involved a return to the city that had played an important role in his career, since London is where he was trained as an artist in the 1970s. A few months after the presentation of Double Bind at Tate Modern, Juan Muñoz died at the age of 48. The work was dismantled a year later, making Double Bind his final masterwork.
The piece has an upper horizontal level, from which the participant observes an optical landscape that cannot be traversed. Two empty elevators pass through this level, rise to the ceiling of the hall and descend to the lower level, marking the depth of the space while incorporating movement. On the lower level, which is darkened as if it were a garage, the spectators are free to walk about and observe the intermediate space above, in which scenes are represented in inner courtyards or shafts built between columns. These spaces contain twenty human figures, architectural elements such as windows, doors, blinds, and air conditioning units. The components of the work are made of polyester resin, fiberglass, naturally pigmented cloth, and wood.
About PLANTA
PLANTA is an innovative project that brings together Sorigué’s interpretation of giving back in the fields of art, science, architecture, landscape, knowledge, and business. The project is located in La Plana del Corb, an active industrial complex in Balaguer (Lleida, Spain) which symbolizes Sorigué’s beginnings as a business group and embodies its values.
PLANTA will include a central building executed by Ábalos + Sentkiewicz | Architects. (AS+) in collaboration with a team of experts associated with the project. The architectural design was exhibited in September of this year at the Chicago Biennial, and can be defined as an experiment in architectural thermodynamics, a thermal machine creating a relationship between the local climate and the materials of which it is constructed, through a meticulous balance of form, material, and flow making possible the creation of a fully autonomous building.
PLANTA also consists of site-specific art spaces without equal anywhere in the world, containing pieces by important international artists, such as the Anselm Kiefer pavilion, which hosts three monumental works by the German artist, and an underground installation by Bill Viola. Currently, work is underway on a large installation by the South African artist William Kentridge, a unique work by German artist Wim Wenders, a large-scale piece by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, and a new space created specifically for an exceptional piece by Bill Viola.
The impetus to exhibit Double Bind for the next five years at PLANTA arose from the commitment of the Sorigué Foundation to the art of our time and the artists in its collection: Juan Muñoz is one of the creators included in the foundation’s collection.
About the Sorigué Foundation’s contemporary art collection
For the past 15 years, the Sorigué Foundation has been building one of the most important contemporary art collections in Spain, winner of the Arte y Mecenazgo prize awarded by the “la Caixa” foundation in May of 2015 and the 2017 GAC prize for collecting, awarded by the Gremio de Galerías de Arte (art galleries’ guild) of Catalonia with the collaboration of the Asociación Art Barcelona, in 2017.
Consisting of more than 450 works by Spanish and international artists, the Sorigué Foundation collection is organized around artistic values rather than specific styles, and focuses on the most sensitive and emotional aspects of contemporary art. As a result, the works of internationally renowned artists stand next to the works of virtual unknowns, as this is an open collection that establishes myriad connections between different artistic languages and the environment.
The institution maintains an active lending policy with other Spanish and international entities. The collection has participated in exhibitions produced by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, The Santa Mónica Art Museum of California, the Tate Gallery in Liverpool, the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo – CAAC) in Seville, Arts Santa Mónica in Barcelona, the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, among others.
One of the collection’s areas of focus, along with moving images, drawing and painting, is contemporary sculpture. The collection includes major contributions by some of the most outstanding artists in this field, including works by artists such as Doris Salcedo, George Segal, Anthony Gomley, Anish Kapoor, Cristina Iglesias, Tonny Cragg, Eric Fischl, Kiki Smith and, of course, Juan Muñoz, who is represented in the collection by his work “Four Piggybacks with knives”, a sculptural piece composed of eight bronze human figures. The work was completed in 2001, the same year in which Double Bind was presented at Tate Modern.
