Philippe Parreno La Quinta Del Sordo, 2021

La Quinta del Sordo is a filmic and sound environment by Philippe Parreno focusing on Goya’s long-destroyed country house and its legendary wall paintings, the Pinturas negras (Black Paintings). La Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf), situated on the outskirts of Madrid, was the home of Francisco de Goya in the years leading up to his exile. In two rooms of the country house the artist created a series of 14 wall paintings in oil, known as the Black Paintings. Created between 1819 and 1824, the murals were only discovered after Goya’s death. Having acquired the house in 1873, Baron Émile d’Erlanger transferred the paintings to canvas and later donated them to the Spanish state. Sent to the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, these visionary masterpieces have been on view since 1889.

In his new science-fictional work Philippe Parreno reproduces the relationship between the individual paintings and the house they were originally a part of. Creating a diegetic space, Parreno allows the audience to travel back in time and experience the Pinturas negras in their original setting. When filming at the Prado, the artist was able to capture the paintings up-close in incredible detail, using ultra high-definition cameras to create a unique level of proximity and intimacy between the paintings and the viewer, with every detail and every brushstroke becoming visible.

La Quinta del Sordo is set to an imaginary soundscape, for which the artist rebuilt the house and garden in 3D, creating an acoustic model of the architecture. The installation becomes alive through the sounds of creaky floorboards, the crackling of the fireplace, the wind rustling through the trees outside, or the chiming of local church bells in the distance. As the time of day changes so does the sound and light. Granular sound synthesis allows for the sound to constantly change and transform, creating all-encompassing acoustics that are never the same.