Credits: Paco Cao/Pablo Gómez Sala
Monday, May 20, 2024, 6-7 pm ET via the Franklin Furnace LOFT: this live presentation with Paco Cao in conversation with Pablo Helguera and the public will focus on the creation and development of the Museum Beauty Contest project organized by La Galleria Nazionale di Roma between 2016 and 2017. In an exploration of age-old questions surrounding traditional notions of beauty; mated with the dynamics of contemporary, competitive reality shows; thirty-five female portraits and thirty-five male portraits belonging to La Galleria Nazionale di Roma’s collection were selected and entered into a beauty contest in which the public served as the jury, casting both paper and online voting ballots. Images of the development of the project from the book will be shared, and the challenges faced during the process of creating the volume will be addressed.
During the presentation, a special question will be asked of the public and whoever is first to answer correctly will receive a book by Paco Cao from one of his previous related projects, and exploration of the contest format from an artistic perspective.
Credits: Paco Cao/Futura Tittaferrante
Credits: Paco Cao/Eduardo De Matteis
Credits: Canale 5
Credits: Paco Cao/Futura Tittaferrante
About the book: Museum Beauty Context
Museum Beauty Contest, 2024. Credits: Paco Cao
Paco Cao’s Museum Beauty Contest (2023) recounts the creation and development of the eponymous project organized by La Galleria Nazionale di Roma between 2016 and 2017. In an exploration of age-old questions surrounding traditional notions of beauty; mated with the dynamics of contemporary, competitive reality shows; thirty-five female portraits and thirty-five male portraits belonging to the museum’s collection were selected and entered into a beauty contest in which the public served as the jury, casting both paper and online voting ballots. Widespread public participation was achieved due to an intensive promotional campaign deployed throughout Rome’s public transit system along with a televised debate on one of Italy’s most popular programs. After thousands of votes were tallied, the project culminated in a Grand Finale Gala held at the museum where the winners were crowned Miss and Mister Galleria Nazionale 2017.
The book includes texts by Chiara Stefani, Cristiana Collu, Deborah Cullen, Emanuela Garrone, Giovanna Coltelli, Leslie Cozzi, Marcela Cossu, Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, Pablo Helguera, Paco Cao, Rosanna McLaughlin, Massimo Minini, Rita Camerlingo, as well as a large number of images.
The publication is structured in three parts. The first and most extensive part narrates the project through images and brief texts in large-format typography. The second part contains six essays. Finally, the third part reproduces full-page images of the works participating in the contest
The book was published by Tlon (Rome) in December 2023. It was created in collaboration with The National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.
Artists
Paco Cao is unfaithful to any particular medium. He uses a wide range of disciplines and materials.
His work has been shown at and/or made in collaboration with MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, and Creative Time in New York City; as well as El Prado Museum (Madrid), The Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid), MUSAC (León, Spain), CGAC (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), Mercosul Biennale (Porto Alegre, Brazil), Carrillo Gil Museum (México City), La Galleria Nazionale (Rome), Galleria Borghese (Rome), Musei Capitolini (Rome), Palazzo Barberini (Rome), Archeological Park of Ostia Antica (Lazio), MART (Rovereto, Italy), MAN (Nuoro, Italy), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp), and BOZAR (Brussels).
Cao is the author of the following books: Museum Beauty Contest, 2023 (Edizioni Tlon), Political Art For Children, 2019 (FMC Ayuntamiento de Oviedo), The Museum of the Victim, 2009 (MV Editions), JP-UM, 2005 (Llibros del Pexe), Fèlix Bermeu. A Hidden Life, 2004 (Ajuntament de Terrassa, Hangar), Ignoto, 2002 (MAN), and Rent-a-Body, 1999 (Maguncia, S.L.) Paco Cao studied Art History at the University of Oviedo (Spain,) where he received his Ph.D. in 1992.
Pablo Helguera is a New York based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art and performance. Helguera’s work focuses on a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances and written fiction.
Helguera has exhibited or performed at venues such as the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; ICA Boston; RCA London; 8th Havana Biennal, PERFORMA 05, Havana; Shedhalle, Zurich; MoMA P.S.1, New York; Brooklyn Museum; IFA Galerie, Bonn; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo; MALBA museum in Buenos Aires, Ex-Teresa Espacio Alternativo in Mexico City, The Bronx Museum, Artist Space, and Sculpture Center, amongst many others. He is currently Assistant Professor of Arts and Entrepreneurship at the College of Performing Arts at the New School in New York, and represented by Kent Fine Art in New York and Enrique Guerrero Gallery in Mexico City.
This publication has been made possible through support from La Galleria Nazionale and Rome-American Academy in Rome
This project is made possible with funds from Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the members and friends of Franklin Furnace Archive.
