A new exhibition entitled 'The Tyranny of Chronos' forms the backdrop for the official unveiling of Annie Leibovitz's portraits of King Felipe and Queen Letizia and the former governor, Pablo Hernández de Cos. The two new works are the first photographs in the bank's portrait gallery; as such, they mark a new departure in a tradition dating back to the genesis of the bank. However, Leibovitz follows a path first forged by artists such as Goya – whose works are also on display – bringing all her artistic sensitivity to bear in these commissioned portraits. The exhibition also features a wide selection of clocks and artworks from the Banco de España Collection. The pieces, by artists from different backgrounds and eras, challenge and transgress the prevailing notion of time in western society.
Unclocked Time
The third and last section most clearly reflects the notion of linear time, so measurable and predictable, that underpins the logic of contemporary production. The works on display here demonstrate that there are alternative ways of conceiving, experiencing and representing time. This section draws on the language of art and non-western cultural contexts, such as indigenismo, which looks to another notion of time, linked more to natural cycles and indigenous knowledge.
Together with this notion of an alternative, reversible, non-linear time, the show also contains examples of artistic processes that champion alternative models of time associated with the 'slow movement' and others that directly challenge the prevailing idea that time is money and should not be 'wasted'. These artists take more liberating postures in their conception and experience of time and their discussion of the way it is regulated by the consumer society. This transgressive and potentially emancipating dimension of non-colonial and poetic time is explored and championed in this third section by artists such as Antonio Pichillá,
