yes there is a Caceres (less famous and just as magical) that you will not see in any hit series of medieval inspiration, but that is also worth knowing.
we start this alternate route at the hotel and restaurant (belonging to ** Relais & Châteaux ** and awarded two Michelin stars) Atrium , where modernity is not only on the table thanks to the creations of chef Toño Pérez , but also on the walls, since Toño and Joseph Polo – the other owner of the establishment – they are two great passionate about contemporary art and they have been collecting true jewels throughout their lives.
Almost all of them are exposed to the public, What Saura's 1960 'Lolita' hanging in the hotel entrance; the photo of the controversial Santiago Sierra that from the staff canteen reminds us that other worlds can live with what the first world throws away; 'The Whore of Cáceres' from the year 56 , who welcomes us at the bar; the work of Florentino Diaz , which we found on the staff stairs; Y in the Suites we can sleep surrounded by Tapies, Thomas Ruff, Agam, Cruz Diez or a drawing by Andy Warhol.
Corridor of the Hotel Atrium
but let's go to the 'art' that is served at the table. On the occasion of Atrio's 30th anniversary, Tony Perez He wanted to pay tribute to one of the most representative products of his native Extremadura: the acorn-fed Iberian pig. This tribute has been materialized in an 11-step menu, created with both fresh and made from Señorío de Montanera, and that will live permanently with the other tasting menus.
Among the most original proposals, we highlight chorizo bread with pork liver pâté with pork rind and black pepper toppings (to spread with bread) ; the “doblao” loin tartare on crispy candeal bread toast; he pork skin with Norway lobster and poultry broth, an Atrio classic on the menu for more than 20 years; the chocolate ganache made with bitter cocoa and ham fat to replace cocoa butter; and sweets, also with Iberian winks.
Chef Tono Perez
A few meters from the Atrium, among the bars of Calle Pizarro, we come across a modernist palace, remodeled by Mansilla + Tuñon, which houses the headquarters of the Helga de Alvear Foundation , a center for research, dissemination and education in the field of contemporary visual creation.
More than two thousand works currently make up the collection, which is not conceived as a closed and definitive set, but as an institution in constant growth "to respond to that desire to accompany the current and future transformations and developments of contemporary art." Is about risky works, through which we can take a tour of everything that has happened in Spain and abroad, in recent decades, in terms of contemporary art is concerned.
A work exhibited at the Helga de Alvear Foundation
We continue our walk through the other Cáceres at the **Mercedes Calles and Carlos Ballestero Foundation,** housed in the Palacio-Casa de los Becerra, an example of the civil architecture of Cáceres from the end of the Middle Ages. Two of the floors of this building usually house exhibitions of modern or contemporary art.
Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Rubens, Fortuny or Sorolla These are just some of the painters who have starred in the exhibitions of this Foundation. From November 29, 2017 It exposed ' From costumbrismo to modernity. Caja de Extremadura Foundation Collection', which brings together outstanding artists from Extremadura from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Bermudo, Checa, Sánchez Varona, Covarsí and Eugenio Hermoso.
A room of the Mercedes Calles and Carlos Ballestero Foundation
Outside the old town, we must direct our steps towards The Barruecos , an area of great geological and ecological importance and a magnificent place declared Natural Monument which was presented to the world in Game of Thrones. Here we can visit the Vostell Malpartida Museum . Wolf Vostell, discoverer of the technique Dé-coll/age , father of Happening in Europe and initiator of the Fluxus movement and video art, he decided to set up a museum here as an expression of avant-garde art.
Among all the exhibited works, both outside and inside, stands out 'The end of Parzival ' of Dali, Vostell's friend. The inaugural Wolf and Mercedes Vostell collection is a tribute to the automobile as an icon and sculptural element and offers a wide and varied journey through the most representative cycles of the founding artist; the flux collection , which Gino di Maggio donated to Extremadura, it is one of the largest in the world dedicated to this artistic movement; and lastly, he he Conceptual Artists room contains 60 works (paintings, paintings-objects, sculptures and installations) of 48 artists who since the beginning of the museum in 1976 have been especially linked to it, as well as the Vostell couple.