Use Your Illusions: My First Exhibition in Madrid

This year has been hell at times and yet there came a point where I woke up and started acting with urgency. Between the global pandemic, two members of my family in life-or-death situations (unrelated to Covid), and the intense loneliness of spending so much time alone, I thought 2020 might break me. But at the end of summer, suddenly I took action. I wanted something good to happen! I created an artist book and distributed it to numerous bookstores and art museums, where it was received well. I started drawing and painting like my life depended on it. I was invited to participate in two important exhibitions (details are in the previous two posts.) And in December 2020, I had my first dual exhibition in Madrid. 

'Use Your Illusions' examined the purpose of illusions and memories, nostalgia and desire, questioning whether these trips into imagination are positive or detrimental to one's present reality. The exhibition featured both my figurative paintings and the surreal analog collages of the Spanish artist Ella Jazz. We both lived in California at the same time, before meeting in Madrid, and this experience greatly influenced our artwork and worldview.

'Use Your Illusions,' Exhibition View, 2020

'Walking Up To Your Street', Margo Fortuny

Acrylic on canvas,  26 x 18 cm

'The Fighter', Margo Fortuny, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

Beto looking at 'Love Me When I'm Gone' by M. Fortuny. 

Photo: Larry Balboa

'The Trip', Margo Fortuny, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 65 cm

'The Lover', Margo Fortuny, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, 70 x140 cm

'Use Your Illusions' Madrid 2020. Photo: Larry Balboa

Here I am outside 'Use Your Illusions', at Pavilion. 

December 2020. Photo: Diego & The Blue Sea

For more images of my artwork check out my Instagram @margofortuny .

Dear Jack Kerouac: Reading in Gala Knorr's 'Tumbleweeds'

A few weeks ago, I read Gala Knörr's letters to Jack Kerouac, along with four other artists, for her exhibition 'Tumbleweeds' in Bilbao. We read lively letters in a seance-like performance on Zoom (due to the pandemic), in between jazz played by a live saxophonist. The reading premiered on December 14th on Youtube. (Mine is in English at 36:10 if you're curious.)

"Tumbleweeds' is a project based on the fictitious epistolary relationship that artist Gala Knörr established with her "silent mentor" Jack Kerouac. A mentor whose answers could only be found within his oeuvre. Modelling her writing after Satori in Paris, a cognac infused short novel based on Jack Kerouac's search for his family origins on a ten day trip to Paris and Brest, in which the author alludes to a spiritual awakening, yet finds said 'kick in the eye' in a series of Parisian pilgrimage-like extravagant encounters. Knörr narrates similar anecdotical rendez-vous over a four month period at a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts. Utilizing the figure as the one of a confidant, she invokes Jack's spirit, in a seance like performative activation reading of her letters as if we were in a 'Shakespeare&Co' tea party."  -Nicolas de Ribou/ Gala Knörr

The exhibition is on until January 8, 2021 at Torre de Arriz. Go see it if you're in Bilbao. 

I Danced with a Flautist: Performing in William Mackrell's Exhibition at The Ryder Gallery

Last month I had the pleasure of performing in 'Hold Up', William Mackrell's opening piece of his exhibition 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' at The Ryder Gallery. The live performance (with all safety measures in effect) featured the British artist, Alicia Cano, Manuel León, and I acting as a band. I danced around with maracas and gripped the microphone like a lead singer, trying not to channel Axl Rose more than necessary. We interpreted various songs Mackrell had recorded from phone hotlines as a "monument to waiting." How relevant for 2020!

The exhibition at The Ryder, runs until January 29th, 2021. Go see it if you're in Madrid, then wander around Lavapies and go out to lunch. Tia Carlota and Los Chuchis are fun spots to have a bite to eat. 

William Mackrell, Hold Up, 2020
Live performance at The RYDER, Madrid. 19th November 2020
15 min. Air Europa 3.57′ / NHS England Switchboard 3.28′ / Direct Auto 2.10′ / TeamKnowHow 3.02′
Performers: William Mackrell, Alicia Cano, Margo Fortuny and Manuel León.

William Mackrell, Hold Up, 2016-2020 (detail)
Record player, Hi-Fi System (110 x 60 cm), steel hole, speakers & cable
6 Vinyl discs Sound loop, variable Display cabinet (120 x 90 cm)

William Mackrell, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Installation view at The RYDER, Madrid, November 2020

Phone footage of the performance, 2020

Photographs courtesy of The Ryder, Madrid. 

 

The Pleasures of Hackney Road

This year I wrote and illustrated my first artist book! The Pleasures of Hackney Road: Five Tales of Wildness features drawings and stories about my adventures in London. You can find it at two major contemporary art institutions (The CCCB and La Casa Encendida) and at numerous bookstores. There's also a Spanish edition, Los Placeres de Hackney Road, which is now in its second printing. 

You can write me on Instagram @margofortuny if you would like to order a copy internationally or stock it. 

It's the first in a series of books about different cities I've lived in. What cities do you dream of moving to, if you just move spontaneously?

Holding my book in Madrid

The inside of 'The Pleasures of Hackney Road' by Margo Fortuny

A drawing from 'The Pleasures of Hackney Road' by Margo Fortuny

At El Imparcial in Madrid

At the CCCB bookshop in Barcelona