Tacita Dean: The Friar's Doodle

The Friar's Doodle (Museo Reina Sofia, Monastery of Silos 23 March - 27 June, 2011) is a site-specific exhibition reviewing the history of the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos beyond its monumentality, classifying the traces of everyday life in the scribbles and graffiti of the columns of the cloister. In this inventory Tacita Dean, the artist, shows a varied set of uses to the space, bearing witness to the work of the stonemasons, rudimentary medieval games and the use of the monastery as a refuge. This publication doc- uments how the exhibition builds a fragmented and collective cultural history with film and photographic material and narratives. The catalogue of graffiti and drawings made by monks over the centuries in this historical space offers an interesting view of contemporary art from the perspective of everyday life in the past.