"In the Troubled Air..."

The exhibition pays homage to Federico García Lorca and his idea of duende, a heightened state of emotion. It takes its title from a line in the poem “Ballad of the Moon” that opens Lorca’s Gypsy Ballads. The line (“In the troubled air”) refers to the atmosphere that is generated between us, the observers, and the image or work of art observed. It is in this “air” that the emotion or duende occurs.

Because emotions trouble us and expose us to others, and because we live in an environment that is saturated with images, the philosopher and curator Georges Didi-Huberman proposes that we take a critical distance, and stop to read the images and observe the emotions.

"In the Troubled Air..." also explores how emotions are transmitted collectively, from the imaginative gaze of children to emotions in thought, face, gesture, space and time. The exhibition closes with a reflection on the ethical and political dimension of emotion.

The exhibition can be enjoyed as a poetic promenade, an interplay of free associations between over 300 works by artists such as Brecht, Camarón, Colita, Dalí, Giacometti, Goethe, Goya, Hugo, Jahnsen, Lorca, Mercadier, Miró, Pasolini, Picasso, Rodin, Trouvé and Zürn. This personal selection by Didi-Hubermann includes photographs, paintings, sculptures, films, engravings, books, sketches, poems and pieces of music that have Lorca’s concept of duende as their leading thread.

"In the Troubled Air..." is a coproduction by the CCCB and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), where it was presented from 6 November 2024 to 17 March 2025.

"In the Troubled Air..." runs alongside the exhibition “Al taller del filòsof” (In the Philosopher's Workshop), which will be open to the public at the Filmoteca de Catalunya from 9 May to 31 August 2025, with a programme of activities available at www.filmoteca.cat.