L’Espai Carmen Thyssen de Sant Feliu de Guíxols presenta una nova mostra temporal, del 31 de juliol al 17 d’octubre de 2021, centrada en l’obra de Josep Guinovart.

 

 

En la mostra titulada “Univers Guinovart”, el Monestir de Sant Feliu de Guíxols es vesteix novament de gala per acollir una seixantena d’obres, entre pintura, escultura, gravat, serigrafies i altres disciplines en una nova exposició de luxe, en un espai extraordinari, amb un artista excepcional. 

 

 

Univers Guinovart és una exposició realitzada en coordinació amb l’Espai Guinovart i l’Espai Carmen Thyssen, amb la presència de peces de diversos museus i col·leccions del país que permet a l’espectador realitzar una visita amb múltiples itineraris. Obres realitzades entre 1948 i 2007 que marquen la trajectòria artística d’aquest artista, a través cercles entrellaçats. Amb l’exposició, comissariada per Pilar Giró, es vol “retre homenatge al caràcter d’obra oberta amb la qual Guinovart definia la raó de la seva recerca plàstica: la mirada del públic que en fa seu el sentit i el significat”.

 

 

La mostra és un univers traçat des de dues geografies: la primera planta dedicada a una geografia física, indagant les arrels tel·lúriques que nodreixen la sensibilitat vers un món convuls, però també un món de somni, d’esperança, o de regeneració.

 

 

La segona planta explora una geografia humana, perfila un recorregut més introspectiu, fent de pont amb la visió que té Guinovart de l’art “com un projecte, un esbós inacabat, una aproximació al desig, un mer intent, l’intent d’agafar l’aigua amb un sedàs”. Els paisatges de l´ànima i les ànimes dels paisatges ens conduiran per un viatge insòlit a través de l’Univers Guinovart.

 

 

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Teresa Solar

3D Virtual Tour

October 27 at 7:00 p.m. Guided visit by Olivier COLLET

Limited capacity. RSVP at galeria@galeriajoanprats.com

 

 

During the Barcelona Gallery Weekend, we present Teresa Solar’s second solo exhibition at Galeria Joan Prats, in which we will show recent sculptures and drawings.

 

 

Teresa Solar. Time of worms, or the infinite powers of the subsoil

 

Close your eyes. Imagine how these, like two marbles, turn inwards, and fall. They fall down inside your body like two rubber balls, bouncing off the walls of your entrails, your organs, your orifices. Sometimes they slide fast, others are slowed down by the viscosity or some cavity they find; But they are falling, falling, falling. Submerged in that inner darkness, your eyes begin to update their perceptual form, expanding their visual sensorium, that is, seeing-touching, seeing-feeling, seeing-falling.

 

They fall even beyond your body, crossing the ground you step on, entering the thousand layers of earth, stones, remains, of constructions, structures, and times that crowd the subsoil. They move agile through these strata, at times stopping in gaps here and there, seeing without seeing in the blackness that reigns. The deeper they go, and the more they get muddy in that telluric density, the operative divisions of the objective world dissolve to give way to an undifferentiated materiality, full of powers. A sort of dry sea, where they rest in a stagnant, almost rotten time, the fossils of many possible futures.

 

How is this haptic image perceived by your eyes? How is this chronic time that they reveal? Perhaps the pieces that Teresa Solar presents in this exhibition, El tiempo de las lombrices (Time of Worms), seek precisely this: to show us an experiential image of what is unknown and hidden that we step on, that we walk through, and that inhabits us. It is not a pristine and objective image, like the cut of an engineer or surgeon, but rather a dense and nocturnal object, which tries to embrace all the dimensions that compose her and that escape our capacity for representation. For this, the artist displays a practice similar to a dowser’s practice, activating an imagination that runs through tunnels, passageways, galleries and cavernous systems buried in the bowels of both the earth and the body. The daily use of the Madrid metro, as a transit place “that allows us an exogenous relationship with the earth’s mantle”; the analysis of its own vocal cords; or the speculation about the underground life of worms in the title, are all important references for Solar in this project.

 

A group of wall drawings welcomes the exhibition: Formas de Fuga (Forms of Escape) (2021), in which tongues, glottis, pharynx, genitals, jaws or other soft organs languidly open before our gaze in a salmon tonality. It is followed by Eco Chamber (2021) is composed of two diptychs made with a black marker, which show a clean cut of the fold, an indefinite flesh from a lens that allows us to appreciate its different layers and sections. In the next room rests the group of pieces Hermafrodita (Hermaphrodite) (2021): cavities of some body —geological or animal— that the claw of a bulldozer, or perhaps creature, has violently torn apart, like their tattered edges show. Its shapes are reminiscent of immemorial marine animals, or the shells of nameless specimens, while the saturated and strident colors that cover its interior walls are a reference to the colors that the operators of the subway and other underground infrastructures normally wear. Dazzling colors, whose brightness does not respond so much to the light that they are capable of reflecting, but to the conservation through the act of shining of that darkness in which they move; definitely, “the color of darkness itself” according to the artist. Finally, the series Nacimiento (Birth) (2021) shows a system of orange communicating vessels, in which various cellular patterns intersect and evolve symbiotically until culminating in the eruption of a tooth.

 

Solar reminds me of a quote from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut in which an alien from the planet Tralfamadore describes the poverty of time tunnel vision in Earthlings, only to conclude: “All time is time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take moments for what they are, moments, and soon you will realize that we are all insects trapped in amber. ” The movements through tunnels in this exhibition are also a metaphor for a linear experience of time that, far from any promise of peaceful progress, is a vector of anxiety in the artist in front of the prospect of an irremediably univocal future. The use of ceramic, being a material with a great insulating capacity, underlines this closure, evoking qualities of the watertight, even the hermetic. But pulling the thread of that unearthed imagination, these isolated and insulating clay sculptures also enclose within themselves a deep subsoil time in the very matter from which they are made and the speculation from which they emerge. By tearing and opening these cavities-pieces, the artist seeks to spread in front of us this stagnant time that flees from linearity towards other material ontologies, towards other ostensible imperceptibilities, and perhaps, also, towards another more egalitarian and less violent temporal distribution. In them beats a congregation of temporary powers, without definition or direction because as their name Hermafroditas (Hermaphrodites) (2021) suggests, they are creatures in a state of undifferentiation, of pure (sexual) potency without actualizing or fixing on any denominator; and that, therefore, they contain within themselves all future forms and possibilities.

 

At the heart of this set of sculptures and drawings there is Tuneladora (2021): a sculpture in which a pair of resin fins grow powerful and slender from a muddy outgrowth. The fins (which could also be blades, or oars) are painted from their edge in a gradient from navy blue to white, reminiscent of baroque chromaticism in the way that it underlines the shadows and lights of the piece while emphasizing its speed and movement. They refer to the dolphin and its symbolism that Solar reads in the key of Minoan mythology, where these animals are attributed the ability to guide to a safe harbor; and at the same time, they are covered with the patina of a fair booth that we find in previous projects of the artist. Their polished and dynamic finish contrasts with the heavy and immobile presence of the mud from which they arise; a kind of stump of a missing joint, perhaps belonging to some deep-seated dweller. In fact, the piece invites us to imagine that when it is operated, it has unearthed the cavernous sculptures that surround it: while the group of Hermafroditas shows the emptying, Tuneladora (TBM) presents the positive body that excavates the tunnel gallery. This amalgamation of the geological and shapeless materiality of the mud with the plastic hyper-definition of the fin combines in an unprecedented way two registers present in the artist’s work, the one of the raw and abstract power of the material with the updating vector of fiction, which crystallizes in a language — both symbolic and aesthetic— sharp and precise. As if the speculative grammar of fiction, loaded with all its signs and forms, emerged from the torrent generated by these two helices in the wild and unknown substrate

 

 

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga

Curator, researcher and educator. She lives and works in Utrecht, where she is curator of the Post-Academic Program at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst

 

 

Teresa Solar (Madrid, 1985) studied Fine Arts at Universidad Complutense of Madrid.

 

Some of her most prominent solo shows include “Ride, ride,ride” in Matadero Madrid (2018) and Index Foundation in Stockholm (2019) and “Flotation Line” at DER TANK, Institut Kunst Basel, Switzerland (2018). She has also created solo exhibits in galleries such as “Time of worms” at Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona (2021), “Forms of Fleeing” Travesía Cuatro Gallery, Madrid (2020), “Pumping Station” in Travesía Cuatro CDMX Gallery in Mexico City (2019) and “Ground Control” at Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona (2017).

 

Solar’s work has been recently shown at the Liverpool Biennial 2021 curated by Manuela Moscoso, at the VII international Biennial of Young Art of Moscow (2020) and at the Köln Skulptur Park  #9 curated by Chus Martinez  (2017-2020) . Solar’s projects have been present at groups shows in Haus der Kunst, Munich; Kunstverein Munich, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Maxxi Roma, CA2M Madrid, Patio Herreriano Museum Valladolid and Marcelino Botín Foundation Santander, among others. She is currently a finalist of the Future Generation Prize 2021-2022 at Pinchuk Foundation in Kiev.

Estar a la lluna

FONTETA – Bombon · Joan Prats · NoguerasBlanchard

Capítol II: Estar a la lluna (Head in the clouds)

 

Opening: 7th of August, 12am-9pm

Exhibition until 26th of September

c/ Empordà, 10, Fonteta, Girona

 

August: Monday to Sunday, 5-9pm

September: Friday to Sunday, 5-9pm

or by appointment: (+34) 644 524 969

 

 

We’re delighted to present the second chapter of the joint project by Bombon, Galeria Joan Prats and NoguerasBlanchard in Fonteta, a small village in the Emporda region.

 

The exhibition, conceived in two chapters (the first opening June 19th and the second August 7th) brings together artists from three different generations. The proposal begins with a concept from the Emporda Parar la fresca (to take in fresh air) described by Josep Pla in the book “Las Horas”.

 

 

Text by Gabriel Ventura

 

 

“Perhaps because for so many centuries it has been out of reach, it has awakened the most fantastical dreams, those which are most passionate and hidden. Its charm will always be on behalf of the nighttime, of the occult and intuition, of secrecy and excess. The moon -which dilates and dwarfs cat’s eyes, makes tides rise and fall, and inflates and deflates frogs continues to fascinate us with the same fervour of ancient times, even though we have already stepped upon it gingerly, and now some enlightened entrepreneurs plan to build hotels with galactic views. But let’s not fool ourselves: the colonising eagerness of Jeff Bezos and company will not be able to bring closer or make more comprehensible the mysteries of the White Hare or the Spider Woman.

 

Eternally distant, the moon has been worshiped by witches and vampires, by poets and fortune-tellers. As much as science tries to conquer it, the lunar mercurial light projects us towards remote and inscrutable futures, and invites us to reflect on the shadows and myths of the human condition. Throughout history we have linked it to fertility and the unconscious, to death and resurrection, to the repetition of life’s cycles. The first inscribed annotations on artefacts and tools from the Palaeolithic era consist of lunar records. In fact, is very likely that before the advent of agriculture, societies were organised according to a lunar temporal cycle, as demonstrated by Alexander Marshack’s research in The Roots of Civilization.

 

Unlike the sun, the omnipotent and constant star, the moon goes through phases; it waxes and wanes, dwindles, bends, and transforms. For this reason, there has been a historical tendency to represent what is immutable with the sun (God), and that which is changing and material with the moon (for example, Plato’s sublunar and mortal kingdom, the land of doubt and shadows). Inevitably, for millennia, human species has found its counterpart in the drama of the moon: being born, growing up, reproducing (the belly of the full moon), and dying. If the solar syntax divides and ranks –W.B. Yeats accused the sun of offering “complex and contrived” truths– the lunar syntax mixes and confuses the forms by being evasive, emotional, fluid. Symbolically, the moon evokes the imaginative, contingent, and ambiguous world of existence, which contrasts against absolute solar truths shaping an ideal world of being. It is impossible to look directly at the sun, it is impossible to enter into a dialogue with its dazzling presence. The moon, on the other hand, illuminates paths from the brinks of the sky and, in the words of Lorca, shamelessly shows its “one hundred identical faces”. Illusion, delirium, chimera, madness, chaos, dispersion (estar a la lluna 1): the attributes of the queen of the night suggest the transgression of daytime norms.

 

Lilacs and electric blues, striking yellows and raging reds, fluorescent greens that shoot up from the dark, like a scream piercing the conscience. The colours of the night sharpen the nerves as well as the eye; they make us untrusting, and we sense the intermittent heartbeat of danger.

 

A tremor runs down our backs: is it real, what we have seen? Can we believe in the images and words that appear under Selene’s cold light? Perhaps, deep down, being on the moon is one of the most fruitful and perplexing ways to be on Earth -not taking anything for granted, continuing to be suspicious, and looking up at the unfathomable secrets of the universe.

 

Gabriel Ventura

 

 

Capítol I: Parar la fresca (To take in fresh air)

Speculative Intimacy Voice Channel

Speculative Intimacy | Voice Channel

15 de juliol, 19h. Conferència performativa amb Alicia Kopf, Petit Palau

Entrades: 5 €

 

 
 

Una perspectiva al voltant d’allò íntim en la veu i la relació del lector, l’escriptor i l’intèrpret vocals amb la multitud de veus que els travessen.

 

Speculative Intimacy dona nom al projecte artístic que Alicia Kopf ha estat treballant en els darrers anys, i que explora la possibilitat de nous relats sobre els vincles afectius entre humans, humans i no-humans, i a escales diverses.

 

En el context del cicle de conferències Hivernacle, Alicia Kopf encarna una sèrie de textos amb els quals manté una relació íntima mentre reflexiona sobre què és allò intangible del cos que transporta la veu, més enllà del text. La relació entre cos, veu, identitat i el desig de cantar que comporta l’entrada al vincle amorós es performen en el context d’una classe de cant. Amb la participació de la cantant Tamar McLeod, posarem en acció la pregunta: si la inserció de la pròpia veu en certes esferes és un privilegi, podem cantar tots, per amor, al Palau de la Música?

 

 

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Julia Varela

Visit with the artist on September 2, 18h30. By appointment at galeria@galeriajoanprats.com 

 

As part of artnou, Galeria Joan Prats presents the exhibiion Duress by Julia Varela (Madrid, 1986).

 

In the digital contemporary landscape mediated by technological devices, the perception of images is promoted through their visible condition. This visibility is what gives an image its performative status, the possibility of being and its social and legal recognition. The series of works presented in the exhibition and their historical context will address several issues surrounding this and other topics.

 

Julia Varela is an artist who works on the medium and materiality of images in the age of digital technology. Her research focuses on the states adopted by the irrepressible who resist representation.

The physical form of her work analyses the globalization of industries, technological matter and the concept of visuality. Her work intensifies our physical interaction with devices and their mechanisms, providing an alternative understanding of notions such as context and desire.

Julia has been part of the Critical Images research program in Kungl Konsthögskolan Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and a master’s degree in Art Sculpture from the Royal College of Art London. Her latest exhibitions have taken place at: Centro de Cultura Contemporánea CondeDuque, Madrid; Fundació Suñol, Barcelona; Somerset House, London; Belgrade Cultural Centre BCC, Belgrade; Listost Gallery, Prague; Decad, Berlin; Yamakiwa Gallery, Japan; KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Galleri Mejan, Stockholm; Resartis, Melbourne; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin; CUL DE SAC Gallery, London.

She is currently a resident artist at HANGAR, Centre de producció i recerca d’arts visuals, Barcelona.

 

Naves de Gamazo, Santander

02.07 – 31.10.2021

Comisarias: María de Corral y Lorena Martínez de Corral

 

La historia se estudia y se escribe en torno a la idea de un progreso lineal que acumula hitos y metas. El sentido de la historia cambia con relación al presente desde donde se aborda. La exposición en las Naves de Gamazo responde a criterios ontológicos para plantear un recorrido a través de la Colección ENAIRE con el que abrir puertas y canales de comunicación desde su materialidad, y explorar así otras narrativas desde la subjetividad de los artistas.

 

La muestra explora la dimensión física de la Colección a partir de sus especificidades formales y materiales que la vinculan con un lugar y un tiempo determinado. Las pinturas, esculturas, fotografías, grabados y vídeos seleccionados reflejan distintas expresiones y actitudes que, sin duda, han marcado de forma decisiva el arte actual.

 

La selección de alrededor de cien obras está configurada como una constelación de diferentes voces y prácticas artísticas, que intenta ofrecer una amplia visión del arte creado a lo largo de los últimos setenta años. Hemos procurado configurar esa visión mediante una serie de argumentos visuales y conceptuales que unen y relacionan las obras entre sí, y que ofrecen la posibilidad de crear sugerentes yuxtaposiciones y diálogos y son un buen ejemplo de la pluralidad de opciones estéticas que vertebran el arte contemporáneo.

 

El recorrido de la muestra se inicia en los años sesenta con artistas del informalismo matérico, continua con una nueva forma de definir e interpretar la abstracción propia de los años ochenta y se extiende hasta los 2000, donde el arte participa de la necesidad de repensar el sujeto, el cuerpo y la identidad, representado principalmente por fotografías que visualizan así el peso que tiene éste último medio dentro de la Colección, con un circuito propio que incluye sus premios y últimas adquisiciones.

 

La exposición se ha estructurado en diversas salas en las que la instalación no obedece a criterios históricos o cronológicos, sino que intenta relacionar las obras a través de sus afinidades estéticas, temáticas, o por asociaciones de momentos y sensibilidades artísticas. Ofreciendo nuevas interacciones que establecen diálogos abiertos entre las obras de artistas de distintas generaciones y procedencias, provocando algunas relaciones sorprendentes y contrastes reveladores.

 

Al seleccionar esta exposición hemos intentado tener una mirada abierta que nos permitiese colocar al artista y sus obras en el centro de la atención. No hemos pretendido elaborar un discurso cerrado sino tender hilos que puedan ser tramados y entrelazados de diversas maneras, una y otra vez, también por los espectadores, ya que el arte es asimismo un espacio de cuestionamiento, de la falta de necesidad de códigos claros y finalidades concretas.

 

En toda elección hay un pretendido equilibrio entre las motivaciones racionales, el análisis intelectual y el despliegue de la emoción y de la pasión. Aunque en esta ocasión, al realizar la selección, hemos intentado hacer visibles ciertos momentos de la historia del arte, pero especialmente reflejar el espíritu, el criterio y las ideas de ENAIRE, una Fundación comprometida con el arte y su comunidad.

 

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