How does a private art collection become public? Who was Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza? These seemingly easy (and not so easy) questions are at the heart of Walid Raad's new project Cotton Under My Feet, conceived for the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, coinciding with the centennial of its original founder. Deep in the museum's bowels, Raad has unearthed fragments of stories, fictional documents, and puzzling artifacts. Walid Raad offers a vertiginous reflection on the potential legacy of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collections and their relation to the history of Western and non-Western art.
Text: Eva Ebersberger, Guillermo Solana, Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Jalal Toufic, Daniela Zyman.
