cultural programme march 2015

© Courtesy Geoffrey Parker

Nature: a cultural artefact A project by Gloria Ceballos

THU 12 FEB – FRI 21 MAR

MON – FRI 10:30am – 7:00pmSAT 10:30am – 3:30pmExhibition Room, Instituto Cervantes LondonAdmission freeFurther information:http://www.gloriaceballos.com

exhibition

Nature: a cultural artefact* represents Gloria Ceballos constant research about the human relationship with nature as the centre of her practice.As city inhabitants our experiences of nature are restricted to parks, gardens and other green areas within our cities: the “cultured nature”. We call green spaces a natural environment, when in reality they are human-controlled places.In our aim to control everything, nature is classified, organised, designed, and theorized. The “three natures” concept studied for many authors since Cicero and developed by Landscape theorist, John Dixon Hunt is the focus of Ceballos latest series of work presented in this solo exhibition at the Instituto Cervantes in London.

Nature: a cultural artefact* is the title of Gloria Ceballos thesispresented at the Royal College of Art, London in 2015.

© Gloria Ceballos. Porcelain Plate, 2015

LITERATURELECTURE SERIES

SPANISH AND LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE MIGUEL DE CERVANTES AWARDS.CARLOS FUENTES, DE LA AFRENTA AL MELODRAMA: ESTÉTICA, VIOLENCIA Y FAMILIA EN LA OBRA RECIENTE DE CARLOS FUENTES By Prof. Steven Boldy (University of Cambridge)

MON 09, 6:30pm

In EnglishOrganised by the Office of Cultural and Scientific Affairs,Embassy of Spain in the UK and Instituto Cervantes LondonIn collaboration with the Institute of Modern Language ResearchInstitute of Modern Language Research, Senate House, Room 246Malet Street, London WC1E 7HUAdmission freeBooking essential: emb.londres.ofc@maec.es

Carlos Fuentes (Panamá 1928 – México D.F. 2012) was one of the most prolific Latin American writers.Fuentes,pursued his studies in law at the University of Mexico. He graduated at the Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, then he entered the diplomatic service. Fuentes’s first short story collection, Los Días Enmascarados (Masked Days, 1954) was followed by his first novel Where the Air is Clear (La región más transparente, 1958). It was an immediate success, which let him pursue a full-time writer career. In 1962 hepublished his best-known novel, The Death of Artemio Cruz (La muerte de Artemio Cruz), that won him recognition as one of Latin America’s leading young authors. It was inspired by the stories his grandmothers had told him about the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath.He won many awards. These included Mexico’s Alfonso Reyes Prize (1979), and the Premio Miguel Cervantes from Spain (1987) as well as honorary doctorates from universities in the US and the UK including Warwick, Harvard, Cambridge and the University of California,Los Angeles. Prof. Steven Boldy (United Kingdom, 1951) graduated in Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University and he obtained his Ph. D. with ‘A Study of the Novels of Julio Cortázar’ in 1978. He has lectured at LiverpoolUniversity, University of Leeds, Tulane University (New Orleans, USA) and Cambridge University, where he has been the Head of Department of Spanish and Portuguese for two years and works today as Professor of Latin American Literature. Among his books, is worth to mention The Novels of Julio Cortázar (Cambridge: CUP), Memoria Mexicana, The Narrative of Carlos Fuentes and A Companion to Jorge Luis Borges (Tamesis, 2009).

great BRITISH hispanists series #6:PROF. GEOFFREY PARKER In conversation with Dr. Julio Crespo Mac Lennan

TUE 17, 6:30pm

In EnglishAuditorium Instituto Cervantes London Admission freeBooking essential: reservas.londres@cervantes.es | 0207 201 0752Further information: www.londres.cervantes.es

HISTORY, LITERATURE AND THOUGHT

Professor Geoffrey Parker will be interview by Julio Crespo MacLennan. Noel Geoffrey Parker is a British historian specializing in Spanish and military history of the early modern era. His best known book is Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800, first published by Cambridge University Press in 1988. Amongst the foreign honours he holds, he is a member of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise and was granted the Great Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Spanish government.He has received honorary doctorates from the Catholic University of Brussels (Belgium) and the University of Burgos (Spain). He is a fellow of the British Academy, the Spanish Real Academia de laHistoria, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Prof. Parker has taught at the University of Illinois, the University of St. Andrews and Yale University. He is currently the Andreas Dorpalen Professor of History at The Ohio State University.

© Courtesy Geoffrey Parker

NIGEL GLENDINNING MEMORIAL LECTURE: Clay, something more than earth and water. Baroque Spanish potterysymbolic values By Prof. Alfonso Pleguezuelo

THU 19, 6:30pm

In EnglishOrganised by ARTES, Iberian & Latin American Visual Culture Group and Instituto Cervantes Londres Auditorium Instituto Cervantes LondonTickets £6, free for members of ARTES and Instituto Cervantes London Booking essential: reservas.londres@cervantes.es | 0207 201 0752

arts

Alfonso Pleguezuelo is a Professor of History of Art at theUniversity of Seville. His doctoral thesis was based on early baroque architecture of Seville; He has recently published some articles on Spanish Baroque sculpture, especially from Luisa Roldán, who was a sculptor to Felipe IV. He has spent most of his research on the field of Spanish ceramics of the Modern Age. He is the author of several museum projects and has curated several exhibitions on this matter, the last of which took place in 2014 at the Museum of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon “The Splendour of Cities. The Route of the Tiles”. In this field I had years ago contacts with the group of British medievalist archaeologists published in “Medieval Ceramics” an article and was also a personal friend of Anthony Ray through which he could learn about the collections of Spanish pottery preserved in museums Oxford, Cambridge and, above all, in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British in London. His contribution to the International Colloquium “A Splendid Isolation ?. Spanish Cultural Identity and the Visual Arts 1500-1700. “Held in 1997 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which dealt Juan Floris, ceramist the service of Philip II, was finally published in the Proceedings of anothersymposium held later in Antwerp.

© Courtesy ARTES 2015

THEATREDRAMATISED READING

Eloisa is Under an Almond TreeBy Spanish Theatre Company

FRI 20, 6:00pm

In EnglishWith the collaboration of the Office of Cultural and Scientific Affairs, Embassy of Spain in the UK and Instituto Cervantes LondonMedia partner El IbéricoCanada Water Culture Space, 21 Surrey Quays Road, London, SE16 7ARTickets £8 Further information:http://canadawaterculturespace.org.uk/events/eloisa-under-al-mond-tree-performed-spanish

This play narrates a number of unforeseen incidents in the lives of Fernando, his fiancé Mariana and their respective families. They become caught in the mystery of a disappearance, from years ago, of Eloisa, a woman with a suspicious physical resemblance to Mariana. The secrets and misunderstandings that occur in the play lead to other misunderstandings and to hilarious situations.

Enrique Jardiel Poncela (1901-1952) was a Spanish writer and playwright. His works, related to the Theatre of the Absurd, moved away from traditional humour to a more intellectual, improbable and illogical one. This was a break with the naturalism that was dominant in the Spanish theatre of his time. Indeed, he was attacked by the majority of the critics then, since his humour woundeddelicate sensibilities and opened up a range of comic possibilities that were not always well understood. Besides, he ran into problems with censorship under the Franco regime.Nevertheless, the passing years have led to an increasing recognition of his works and they continue to be performed, many having had films based upon them.

© Courtesy Spanish Theatre Company

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