Marcel Broodthaers 7

«Marcel Broodthaers 7» takes as its starting point a still from the 1973 film «Wax Figures (Jeremy Bentham)», in which Marcel Broodthaers questions a wax figure of the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), a key figure in the founding of the University of London. Formally, the work is inspired by the paintings of Gerhard Richter, which begin with a photographic projection onto canvas, over which blurred layers of oil paint are applied.

This painting belongs to the Davis Museum Barcelona, a symbolic institution I founded in 2009 inside a transparent ballot box. Disseminated primarily through social media, this mini-museum functions as a ready-made sculpture, a digital archive, a small-format contemporary art collection, and a nonprofit collaborative project, officially recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The work aligns itself with a critical narrative of 20th-century art, drawing on projects such as Marcel Duchamp’s «Boîte-en-valise», Robert Filliou’s «Galerie Légitime», and Marcel Broodthaers’ «Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles»—works that understood the museum as a medium, not merely as a container.

The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona is the only part of the museum where works are available for sale. The paintings, organized by genre—Animals, Self-Portraits, Exteriors, Interiors, Classical Mythology, Still Lifes, Historical Paintings, and Portraits—are executed in oil on linen using only the finest materials (Old Holland and Talens). The square format echoes the cubic architecture of the museum, while the color palette corresponds to the Blue Period (2016–2018).