Robert Filliou 31

The conceptual starting point of this work was a black-and-white photograph depicting Robert Filliou wearing his celebrated creation «Galerie légitime» (1962), a mobile art gallery crafted from a folded paper hat, first presented during the «Defrosting the Frozen Exhibition» in London that same year. Drawing inspiration from the cubist compositions of Picasso, the creative process began with a digital study using artificial intelligence, which transformed the original image into a cubist reinterpretation. This was later transferred to canvas using oil paint and enriched with textures that enhance the material and visual complexity.

The narrative of this piece aligns with a lineage of artists who have created their own museums as acts of critical engagement with art institutions. Notable examples include «Boîte-en-valise» (1935–41) by Marcel Duchamp, a “suitcase-museum” encapsulating miniature versions of his work; «Galerie légitime» (1962) by Robert Filliou, a portable gallery that disrupts traditional display models; and «Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles» (1968) by Marcel Broodthaers, a fictitious museum that critiques the art world’s legitimizing mechanisms. This tradition finds a contemporary continuation in the Davis Museum Barcelona, a miniature contemporary art museum symbolically conceived inside a ballot box and recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

This cultural entity is organized into thematic sections, one of which is «The Painting Section from Davis Museum Barcelona», featuring portraits of the artists mentioned above and still lifes inspired by their works. This project consolidates a small-format collection and a digital archive, embodying a collective, experimental, and nonprofit artistic initiative. It aligns with the critical spirit of its predecessors while offering new possibilities for contemporary art creation and dissemination.