Jonathan Monaghan. "Alien Fanfare" at ARCOmadrid 2015

"Alien Fanfare" chronicles a majestic invasion of a fantastical spacecraft that is part flesh, part baroque architecture. This rotating spaceship, decorated with gold filigree and Goya's royal tapestry cartoons from the Prado, gives birth to a winged probe, that flys towards earth. The probe in turn gives birth to a dragon-like creature that is part couch, part flesh. The invasion ends with a riff of Albrecht Durer’s 15th century woodcut The Triumphal Arch, re-imagined as a boutique hotel topped with a recreation of Madrid's iconic Beaux Arts style Edificio Metrópolis. "Alien Fanfare" plays with our desires and anxieties, while creating a surreal vision of a possible future.