It is a bird? It is a plane? It's Superman, he lives in Fuenlabrada and is treated, probably shows it more complete and detailed dedicated to the iconic superhero. Superman: The exhibition can be visited for free until April 17 at the Tomás y Valiente Art Center (CEART) in Fuenlabrada (C/ Leganés, 51).
Superman.
This is the starting gun for Fuenlabrada Friki!, an exclusive project of the town hall of this Madrid municipality designed by Carlos Martín, curator of the exhibition. He explains to us that “what it is about is to approach with great exhibitions geek culture everyone, to remove the stigma that the word geek has had until now. Not just the character or the story itself, but the world of collecting, the passage through the audiovisual, through comics or through books, depending a little on the theme”.
Although Marvel characters are more fashionable right now, Carlos decided to start this adventure focusing on Superman (belonging to the DC universe), since “He is still the first superhero to appear in comics, and the first superhero to have a major movie made. It could be said that the forerunner of the movies of Superheros as we know them today is the Superman by Richard Donner. In the end Superman, whether you like it more or less, although Marvel is more fashionable, everyone knows him, he is a brand in itself. Everyone knows what Superman's shield is, everyone knows the character. If you like geek culture or the world of superheroes a little, you will like the exhibition”.
Superman: The Exhibition.
OVER 300 FIGURES
The exhibition has more than 300 different figures of the superhero, in addition to all kinds of material: posters and stills from the movies, comic book covers, busts, a life-size statue... Almost all the collected material belongs to Carlos himself: “I have been collecting material of all kinds about Superman for many years. Whenever I went to DC, Superman, or Superman and Batman shows, I saw them a little sparse. And always talking about the comic and not so much about the audiovisual Superman. My collection is born from the audiovisual, because I was born and grew up loving Christopher Reeve's Superman, and I wanted to make an exhibition about the character in the series and in the movies, focus more on that than on the comics. I have to confess that I have never read a single Superman comic in my life. but I have seen everything that has been done at an audiovisual level”.
There's also an 8x10 meter graffiti made by Scamez, as well as a recreation of the fortress of solitude “as a photocall, so that people can take photos there as a souvenir. Although they photograph everything, I freak out when I'm there because they don't stop taking photos: to the figures, the graffiti, the posters… In the end, it is exciting that your entire collection arrives. I swear they must be about a thousand photos per minute”, he confesses.
TALKS AND PROJECTIONS
The exhibition is accompanied by various parallel activities, which will also be free and performed at the Tomás y Valiente Theater (integrated into the same building). On the one hand, talks like that of Javier Olivares (held on February 4), “a youtuber who became very famous talking about Superman. He has like a million followers.” Also that of José María Trallero (February 12), "Probably the world's greatest Superman collector's expert, author of the book Red Calzones”.
On the other hand, the public will be able to see on the big screen various films and documentaries within the cycle What you never saw of Superman. Carlos points out that they are “projections of unique things, such as the making-of of Christopher Reeve's 1 and 2 dubbed into Spanish, which practically nobody has seen, it is impossible to find, on loan from José María Trallero.
Later a version of Superman 4 with remastered effects and some added scene. And an extended version of superman returns, that over time, for Superman fans, has been greatly appreciated. At the time it was heavily criticized, but over time it is usually the second favorite of all of us who love the character.
There will also be contests, markets... Everything will be announced through his Instagram account. “We will grow in the exhibition, and I will add figures. I hope that exact recreations of the three Christopher Reeve suits will be handed over to me, of Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill, and that we can have them there with a hefty mannequin So that people go back and discover new things”, says the curator.
StarWars.
THE NEXT: STAR WARS AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS
The idea, as explained by Carlos Martín, is to “about three exhibitions a year, of about three months each, plus the intermediate time to dismantle, assemble and for people to rest a bit from us”.
The theme of the next two is already decided: The Lord of the rings Y starwars. This time they will have the collections donated by Miguel Ángel Jimeno, also owner of the giant figures that receive visitors right now: the Hulkbuster, the Woody of toy story made of Lego pieces and the life-size Superman.
"I swear they are going to be tremendous," he explains enthusiastically. “You have to think that Superman lives in the imaginary with a single character, and in the end it is more limited than the universe of starwars or the one of The Lord of the rings, that there are a lot of characters and a lot of material. They will be much bigger than Superman's, which it already is, but in the new ones we will take advantage of the third floor of the room we have, and It will be much more spectacular.” We'll be alert.