At home with Goya, Titian and Velázquez: Joana Vasconcelos makes a flamboyant impression in Madrid’s Liria Palace

After opening the Liria Palace in Madrid to the public in 2019 and launching a programme of temporary exhibitions of historical importance, the House of Alba Foundation, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, gave the artist Joana Vasconcelos carte blanche to take over the palace, home to the Duke of Alba’s famous art collection. It is not the first time that the Portuguese artist, known for her spectacular interventions at the Château de Versailles, the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence, or the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda in Lisbon, has introduced her bright and imposing works to a princely residence.

Built in the 18th century, badly damaged during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39)—before being reconstructed, with its collection reinstalled, following the end of the Second World War 80 years ago— the Liria Palace is the residence of Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, the 19th Duke of Alba. Every room is filled with family pictures and masterpieces of European art that Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the third Duke of Alba, started amassing in the 16th century. “Because the family lives here, the collection looks more real, more alive than in any other museum. It is brave to have opened it to contemporary art,” says Vasconcelos, who was invited to forge a dialogue at the palace with works by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Francisco de Zurbarán, Titian, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Francisco Goya.

In the ground floor library hangs Carmen. This iron chandelier covered with multi-coloured hoop earrings — a tribute to Sevillan dancers — was first shown at Galeria Elba Benitez in 2001, marking the beginning of Vasconcelos’s love story with Spain. “I then started working with Spanish curators, including María del Corral and Rosa Martinez, who took me to the Venice Biennale in 2005, which catapulted my career,” says the Portuguese artist whose work Sofía Palazuelo, the Duchess of Huéscar, Carlos Fitz-James Stuart’s daughter-in-law, was already familiar with.

In the opposite window display is a letter to the Countess of Montijo from the French writer Prosper Merimée in which he expresses his intention to create Carmen, the 1845 novella which in turn inspired Georges Bizet to compose the 1875 opera of the same name.

Carmen, with a recording of the celebrated opera singer Maria Callas running in the background, is not the only installation featuring music. A giant heart of Viana, a traditional lucky charm for Portuguese brides, slowly rotates in a room filled with portraits of black-clad aristocrats painted by Diego Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán. This piece, made of black plastic spoons, borrows its title, Corazon Independiente, from Estranha Forma de Vida, a song by the fado diva Amália Rodrigues, which plays in the background: “Independent heart/ Heart that does not command/ You live lost among us/ Stubbornly bleeding”. Since its creation in 2006, this work has always been presented with the same soundtrack.

When asked about the project’s challenges, Vasconcelos responds that none of her works has been altered to fit into the palace. “Actually, it is the other way around,” Julio Lavado Cantos-Figuerola, Exhibition Coordinator at Palacio de Liria, says. “We even had to break and reconstruct a window,” he says, “just so that Wig [Perruque] (2012) could find its place next to Goya’s portrait of Maria Gabriela.” referring to the celebrated White Duchess portrait of 1795, one of the star turns in the Liria collection. The ponytails sticking out of Vasconcelos’s wooden sculpture echo the audacity of the Duchess of Alba, who chose to pose with her hair down for the Spanish master.

Only Goya (2024) and Velásquez (2025), two wolves covered in pastel green and pink crochet, were made especially by Vasconcelos for the Liria palace exhibition, although both form part of an ongoing series. The canines stand on the fireplace of a room decorated with portraits of members of the House of Alba.

Vasconcelos’s installation which extends to some normally private spaces will now be open to the public until 31 July. Her sprawling, passion red “Flaming Heart”, suspended by its head and tentacles from the ceiling, occupies the chapel, the most intimate room in the palace where the family usually engage in private prayers and which is now filled by versions of Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah”.

A giant teapot in wrought iron — La Théière (2025) — takes centre stage in the temporarily accessible gardens. This work is an homage to Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, who married King Charles II and contributed to the popularising of tea in England. It looks, like most of Vasconcelos’s installations in the Liria Palace, as if it has always been there.

• Joana Vasconcelos, Flamboyant. Joana Vasconcelos en el Palacio de Liria. Liria Palace, Madrid, until 31 July