Tag Archives: christo

the magic carpet

Documental: ‘La alfombra mágica. Voces para recordar a Joan de Muga’

 

La exposición ‘La alfombra mágica. Para Joan de Muga’ es un homenaje a Joan de Muga, fundador y director de la Galeria Joan Prats desde 1976, cuando se inauguró, y hasta el 2020. La exposición reunirá obra de artistas que han formado parte de la galería desde sus inicios hasta la actualidad, junto con fotografías, cartas, videos y documentación, para explicar la historia de la galería y también la de Polígrafa y otros proyectos de Joan de Muga como la Fundació Espai Poblenou.

 

Mostraremos obras de Juan Araujo, Francis Bacon, Alfons Borrell, Joan Brossa, Cabrita, Alexander Calder, Anthony Caro, Chillida, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Victoria Civera, Hannah Collins, Helen Frankenthaler, Luis Gordillo, Guinovart, Hernández Pijuan, Wifredo Lam, Louise Lawler, Miralda, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Muntadas, Pablo Palazuelo, Perejaume, Joan Ponç, Fernando Prats, Ràfols Casamada, Caio Reisewitz, Julião Sarmento, George Segal, José María Sicilia, Antoni Tàpies, Juan Uslé, Eulàlia Valldosera, Sue Williams

 

El título de la exposición se inspira en un dibujo que Joan Ponç dedicó a Joan de Muga, en el cual lo retrataba sobre una alfombra voladora. Esta imagen remite a su carácter emprendedor y soñador, su pasión por viajar y para imaginar nuevos proyectos.

 

La exposición la estamos organizando con la complicidad de Carles Guerra, quien escribirá el texto de la publicación que editaremos posteriormente.

L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021

September 18 – October 3

 

 

 

L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, a temporary artwork for Paris, will be on view for 16 days from Saturday, September 18 to Sunday, October 3, 2021. The project will be realized in partnership with the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and in coordination with the City of Paris. It also receives the support of the Centre Pompidou. The Arc de Triomphe will be wrapped in 25,000 square meters of recyclable polypropylene fabric in silvery blue, and with 3,000 meters of red rope.

 

 

In 1961, three years after they met in Paris, Christo and Jeanne-Claude began creating works of art in public spaces. One of their projects was to wrap a public building. When he arrived in Paris, Christo rented a small room near the Arc de Triomphe and had been attracted by the monument ever since. In 1962, he made a photomontage of the Arc de Triomphe wrapped, seen from the Avenue Foch and, in 1988, a collage. 60 years later, the project will finally be concretized.

 

 

L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped is entirely funded by the Estate of Christo V. Javacheff, through the sale of Christo’s preparatory studies, drawings, and collages of the project as well as scale models, works from the 1950s and 1960s, and original lithographs on other subjects. It receives no public funds.

 

 

The Centre des Monuments Nationaux, the government institution that manages the Arc de Triomphe, is pleased about the realization of a project that demonstrates its commitment to contemporary creation and that honors one of the most emblematic monuments in Paris and in France.

 

 

The Eternal Flame, in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, will continue to burn throughout the installation, display, and dismantling of the artwork. As always, veterans’ associations and volunteers committed to the values of the French Republic will ensure the continuity of remembrance and the daily ceremony of rekindling the flame that pays homage to the Unknown Soldier and those who lost their lives fighting for France.

 

 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always made clear that their artworks in progress be continued after their deaths. Per Christo’s wishes, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped will be realized by his team.

 

 

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Exposició col.lectiva d’obra gràfica de Polígrafa, en homenatge a Joan de Muga.

 

Masia Bas, Platja d’Aro.

 

Del 10 de juliol al 12 de setembre, de dimarts a divendres (18-21h) i caps de setmana i festius (11-13h i 18-21h)

 

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L’any 1965, Manuel de Muga va transformar la impremta familiar Polígrafa en editorial especialitzada en art contemporani, i va iniciar un procés d’internacionalització. Molt aviat, el seu fill Joan es va unir a l’empresa i junts van consolidar la seva expansió.

 

Van portar per primera vegada a treballar en els tallers de Barcelona a artistes com Calder, Motherwell, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaler o Christo.

 

Al llarg de més de 40 anys, el treball de Manuel i Joan de Muga, basat en el rigor i en el compromís amb els artistes, va donar lloc a intenses relacions d’amistat i complicitat amb tots aquests artistes. La seva tasca de difusió de l’art contemporani era vocacional.

 

Joan sempre ha estat una persona discreta però tenaç, seguint sempre el seu camí i apostant sempre pels artistes més rellevants i donant-los la major difusió possible. És per això que al taller de Polígrafa hi ha hagut llibertat total per als creadors i això ha generat projectes en obra gràfica espectaculars. Al llarg de tots aquests anys són molts els artistes que han treballat al taller, i tots ells guarden un record d’en Joan, com aquella persona honesta, sempre disposat a ajudar-los i promocionar-los, resolent qualsevol dificultat i obrint portes a món, portant la difusió de les obres per les fires més importants del món. El futur de Polígrafa s’escriurà gràcies a la feina incansable de Joan de Muga.

 

Gràcies Joan!

 

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Ara, a les sales d’art de la Masia Bas, s’hi mostra una selecció de 60 litografies, aiguaforts, fotogravats, aiguatinta o monotips de Carlos Cruz-Díez, Felipe Pantone, RCR, Marco Maggi, Wang Huai Qing, José Bedia, Paul P, Jaume Plensa, Xiaobai Su, Chillida, Michael Craig-Martin, Gloria Muñoz, Leiko Ikemura, Laure Prouvost, Regina Giménez, Liliana Porter, Zao Wou-Ki, Tàpies, Christo, Helen Frankenthaler, Regina Giménez, Joan Miró, Francis Bacon o Hans Hartung.

 

 

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Christo et Jeanne-Claude, Paris! a major exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris.

 

July 1st – October 19th 2020.

 

 

As of 1975, Christo and Jeanne-Claude developed the idea of wrapping the Pont-Neuf in Paris in a golden sandstone-coloured polyamide canvas, which would cover the sides and the vaults of the bridge’s twelve arches, the parapets, the edges and the footpaths (the public could walk on the canvas), its 44 lamps and the vertical walls of the central island of the western end of Île de la Cité and the Esplanade du Vert-Galant.

 

The major exhibition devoted to Christo and Jeanne Claude retraces the story of this project, from 1975 to 1985, and looks back at their Parisian period, between 1958 and 1964, before the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe in 2021.

 

 

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The Mastaba (Project for London, Hyde Park, Serpentine Lake), 2016-18

Serpentine Lake, London

18.6 – 23.9.2018

 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Barrels and The Mastaba 1958–2018

Serpentine Gallery, London

19.6 – 9.9.2018

 

 

Christo has created a temporary sculpture in Hyde Park, London. This is Christo’s first major public, outdoor work in the UK. The temporary sculpture coincides with an exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work, which includes sculptures, drawings, collages and photographs spanning more than 60 years. The sculpture and the exhibition both draw on Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s history of using barrels to create works of art.

 

Since the late 1960s, Christo has sought a suitable site for a floating Mastaba. The temporary sculpture in Hyde Park consists of 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform in the Serpentine Lake. It is 20 meters high x 30 meters wide (at the 60° slanted walls) x 40 meters  long. The standard 55 gallon barrels, 59 x 88 cm, have been specifically fabricated and painted for this sculpture. The sides of the barrels, visible on the top and on the two slanted walls of the sculpture, are painted red and white. The ends of the barrels, visible on the two vertical walls, are different hues of red, blue, and mauve.

 

The sculpture’s floating platform is being made of high-density polyethylene cubes anchored to the lakebed with weighted anchors. A primary steel scaffolding frame was constructed on top of the platform and the barrels are attached to a scaffold sub structure. The total weight is 600 metric tons. The footprint of the sculpture takes up approximately 1% of the total surface area of the lake.

 

As with all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects,The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016-18 is being funded entirely through the sale of Christo’s original works of art. No public money is used for Christo’s projects and he does not accept sponsorship.

 

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