Piedra de toque. Cristina Garrido

La Casa Encendida presents Piedra de toque, an exhibition curated by Cristina Garrido that examines the mechanisms of artistic valuation.

La Casa Encendida, a cultural centre in Madrid, is hosting this proposal which links pieces from the Fundación Montemadrid Collection with tools and documents from the historical archive of El Monte de Piedad. The tour through the galleries allows visitors to view paintings signed by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Rafael Canogar and Equipo Crónica, exhibited alongside material objects traditionally used in appraisal and valuation work.

Among the exhibited items, precision instruments, gauges, specialised manuals and historical clockwork pieces that are periodically kept functioning within the exhibition space stand out. The visual staging of the exhibition evokes the atmosphere of former offices and pawn deposits, confronting the aesthetic dimension of the canvases with the economic and administrative criteria that determined their material value.

This visit is aimed at the public interested in the dynamics of the art market, institutional history and the relationships between cultural heritage and commercial valuation systems. The organisation of the space facilitates a leisurely reading of the notary documents, everyday utensils and canvases brought together in the centre.