Tag Archives: Fernando Prats

El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria, Barcelona

9/9 – 1/10/2023

Inauguració 8 de setembre, 17h

 

Aquest any El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria commemora l’11 de setembre amb dues instal·lacions artístiques al conjunt arqueològic que reinterpreten dues derrotes que dialoguen en els temps i que representen alhora dues lluites: la derrota de la democràcia a Xile a causa del cop d’estat de l’11 de setembre de 1973 i la darrera defensa de Barcelona l’11 de setembre de 1714.

 

El cop d’estat va posar fi a la democràcia emparada per la Constitució xilena del 1925 i a la “via xilena al socialisme”. Va comportar persecucions, violència d’Estat i la inversió dels valors democràtics i republicans que fins aleshores havien sostingut la convivència dels xilens i la seva relació amb la justícia, la policia, les forces armades, les universitats, els municipis i el govern.

 

La instal·lació Dos minutos y medio para el mediodía del 11 de septiembre de 1973, de l’artista Fernando Prats, rememora el 50è aniversari d’aquells fets evocant els elements visuals i sonors que encapsulen la tragèdia: el bombardeig de la Casa de la Moneda de Santiago de Xile i la seva retransmissió radiofònica. La Casa de la Moneda en flames i el fum gris que va envoltar el palau després del bombardeig són els elements que pren l’artista com a metàfora en la seva instal·lació, que consisteix en nou pintures fumades ubicades al jaciment i la reproducció de la locució de Radio Balmaceda del periodista Ignacio González Camus, que relata els instants del cop. A més, a la balconada, el visitant pot veure fotografies històriques dels moments clau de l’atac, una sèrie de dibuixos i un seguit d’arxius que documenten el context polític xilè i les terribles conseqüències que va tenir el cop d’estat.

 

Instal·lació a cura de Ricardo Brodsky.

 

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11 de septiembre de 1973 fernando-prats

14 Julio, 2023 – 30 Septiembre, 2023

MAC Parque Forestal, Santiago de Chile

 

Inauguración 13 de julio, 18h

 

 

La obra de Fernando Prats está determinada por su relación con la naturaleza y el territorio, enraizada en los vínculos que establece con Chile. A lo largo de su trayectoria ha acuñado el término “geologicidad pictórica”, que comprende la pintura como un agente movilizador, una superficie activa que funciona a través de capas que se abren a nuevos desplazamientos. De estos desplazamientos surge la utilización del humo, elemento primordial en su trabajo, pues permite capturar las huellas y pulsaciones de la pintura. 

 

El humo es un signo que anuncia un acontecimiento, y ha sido utilizado históricamente por las culturas en el mundo, evocando la memoria, lo ritual, lo insurrecto y las catástrofes. La historia de Chile está plagada de hechos que a través del humo permiten generar un relato político-simbólico, desde las culturas originarias hasta la reciente revuelta y para su exposición en MAC Parque Forestal, el artista plantea al museo como un soporte en sí mismo para la obra en términos arquitectónicos, políticos, geográficos y geológicos.

 

 

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ARCOmadrid 2023

Galeria Joan Prats

Booth 9C06

 

 

For our booth at ARCOmadrid 2023, we present a selection of pieces by our artists, Erick Beltrán, Alfons Borrell, Cabello/Carceller, Victoria Civera, Luis Gordillo, Alicia Kopf, Lola Lasurt, Perejaume, Pablo del Pozo, Fernando Prats, Caio Reisewitz, José María Sicilia, Juan Uslé.

 

 

For the first time, we will present a canvas and drawings by Brazilian artist Tadáskía.

 

 

Preview here

 

 

the magic carpet

Documentary film: ‘The magic carpet. Voices to remember Joan de Muga’

 

The exhibition ‘The Magic Carpet. For Joan de Muga’ is a tribute to Joan de Muga, founder and director of Joan Prats Gallery since 1976, when it opened, until 2020. The exhibition will bring together the work of artists who have been part of the gallery since the beginning to the present, together with photographs, letters, videos and documentation, to explain the history of the gallery and also Ediciones Polígrafa and other projects by Joan de Muga such as Fundació Espai Poblenou.

 

We will show works by 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

 

The title of the exhibition is inspired by a drawing by Joan Ponç dedicated to Joan de Muga, in which he portrayed him on a flying carpet. This sketch refers to his enterprising and visionary character, his passion for traveling and for imagining new projects.

 

We are organizing the exhibition with the complicity of Carles Guerra, who will write the text of the publication that we will publish later.

art stays

20th Art Stays Festival of Contemporary Art

Post-production

7-10. JUL to 18. SEP 2022

Ptuj, Slovenia

 

 

Between 7th and 10th July 2022, Art Stays, the Ptuj International Festival of Contemporary Arts celebrated its 20 years of a unique project in Slovenia. The directors Jernej Forbici and Marika Vicari presented the 20th edition of the Art Stays Festival entitled POST-PRODUCTION that with all the exhibitions around the city will end on September 18th, 2022. 

 

 

Fernando Prats is part of 20th Art Stays Festival of Contemporary Art with his work ‘El nacimiento del mundo II (1925-2011)’

 

Chilean-born artist Fernando Prats has carried out many of his artistic interventions in Antarctica, the most famous among them being ‘Gran Sur’, which was also presented in the Chilean pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He is returning to Art Stays festival, with his work ‘El nacimiento del mundo II (1925–2011)’, which is a homage to Joan Miró and his painting. It consists of an action that Prats did in the Antarctic, based on Joan Miró’s ‘Dibujo preparatorio de pintura (El nacimiento del mundo)’, 1925 (pencil graphite on paper, 26.4 x 20 cm, property of MoMA New York). Prats also demonstrates the efforts of creators to explore and experience the unknown, by carrying out an action of conquest in the polar emptiness, that consists of moving the lines that form Joan Miró’s ‘Dibujo preparatorio de pintura (El nacimiento del mundo)’, 1925 to the most extreme territory of the planet.

 

 

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Revelations on a Shapeless Sphere

Revelations on a Shapeless Sphere

Fonteta, June 17 – August 28, 2022

 

Pere Noguera, Luis Gordillo, Ludovica Carbotta, Muntadas, Francesco Arena, Victoria Civera, Perejaume, Pere Llobera, Ignacio Uriarte, Anna Dot, The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin, Jordi Mitjà, Rasmus Nilausen, Ángela de la Cruz, Lola Lasurt, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Fernando Prats

 

 

We are delighted to present again a collaborative project of galleries Bombon, Joan Prats and NoguerasBlanchard. The proposal for this season once again brings together artists from the three galleries and from different generations in an exhibition format that will be based on the exquisite corpse principle, with a text by Eduard Escoffet written for the occasion.

 

Focusing on this act of collective exchange, during the summer of 2022, the artists invited to participate, the first of them Pere Noguera (La Bisbal, Girona; 1941), will be in charge of selecting the first group of artists, and so on, until the end of a series of exhibition proposals made up of works spanning different generations and imaginaries.

 

 

Text Eduard Escoffet

 

 

Chapter 1: opening Saturday June 25
Pere Noguera, Luis Gordillo, Ludovica Carbotta (Room 1)
Pere Noguera, Anna Dot, The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin (Room 2)

 

Chapter 2: opening Saturday July 16
Ludovica Carbotta, Muntadas, Francesco Arena (Room 1)
The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin, Jordi Mitjà, Rasmus Nilausen (Room 2)

 

Chapter 3: opening Saturday August 6
Francesco Arena, Victoria Civera, Perejaume (Room 1)
Rasmus Nilausen, Angela de la Cruz, Lola Lasurt (Room 2)

 

Chapter 4: opening Thursday 18
Perejaume, Pere Llobera, Ignacio Uriarte (Room 1)
Lola Lasurt, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Fernando Prats (Room 2)

 

 

c/ Empordà, 10, Fonteta, Girona
June: Friday to Sunday, 5 – 9 pm
July and Aug: Monday to Sunday, 5 – 9 pm

 

 

 

Revelations on a Shapeless Sphere

Revelacions sobre una esfera informe.

Fonteta, 17 Juny – 28 Agost, 2022

 

Estem contents de tornar a presentar el projecte col·laboratiu de Bombon, Joan Prats i NoguerasBlanchard a Fonteta (Empordà). La proposta per a aquesta temporada reuneix de nou artistes de les tres galeries i de diferents generacions en un format expositiu que s’articula talment es tractés d’un cadàver exquisit. El poeta Eduard Escoffet ha escrit un text de presentació d’aquest projecte.

 

Partint d’aquest mateix acte d’intercanvi col·lectiu, durant l’estiu de 2022, els artistes convidats en l’espai, el primer dels quals és el Bisbalenc Pere Noguera, seran els encarregats de seleccionar als següents, i així consecutivament, fins a tancar un cicle de propostes expositives formades per obres que abasten diferents generacions i imaginaris.

 

 

Text Eduard Escoffet

 

 

Capítol 1: inauguració dissabte 25 de juny
Pere Noguera, Luis Gordillo, Ludovica Carbotta (Sala 1)
Pere Noguera, Anna Dot, The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin (Sala 2)

 

Capítol 2: inauguració dissabte 16 de juliol
Ludovica Carbotta, Muntadas, Francesco Arena (Sala 1)
The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin, Jordi Mitjà, Rasmus Nilausen (Sala 2)

 

Capítol 3: inauguració dissabte 6 d’agost
Francesco Arena, Victoria Civera, Perejaume (Sala 1)
Rasmus Nilausen, Angela de la Cruz, Lola Lasurt (Sala 2)

 

Capítol 4: inauguració dissabte 18 d’agost
Perejaume, Pere Llobera, Ignacio Uriarte (Sala 1)
Lola Lasurt, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Fernando Prats (Sala 2)

 

 

c/ Empordà, 10, Fonteta, Girona
Juny: Divendres a diumenge de 17 – 21h
Jul i Ago: Dilluns a diumenge 17 – 21h

 

Camila Cañeque

On May 26, we will open Hole In The Ground, a collective exhibition that brings together works by Cabrita, Camila Cañeque, Hannah Collins, Pablo del Pozo, Mercedes Pimiento and Fernando Prats.

 

The title of the exhibition, inspired by a David Bowie song, refers to the main theme around the displayed pieces, the concept of territory and its materiality. Some of the works deal with the ways of representing the ground, understood as horizontality, both in nature and in the urban environment. In this way, human activity is put in the spotlight, evidencing aspects such as belonging to a territory, the memory of a place or exploitation of the soil and its impact.

 

While some of the presented works speak of very specific places, others refer to the material that we step on when walking. Cabrita, in his work Fingerprints, raises a horizontal plane to the wall, thus turning a simple board, a humble material that was surely used as a work surface in his studio, into a testimony of his artistic activity. The artist offers us a new look at an everyday object and also a review of the place of creation.

 

Camila Cañeque’s work ground on ground on ground shows accumulations of historical layers through grounds. The artist’s work addresses passivity and, in this installation, she uses the notion of the in-between, creating a space that is neither above nor below, before nor after.

 

Hannah Collins’ work Nomad places emphasis on the surface, on skin, on the outside, signaling the artist’s interest in boundaries – most specifically of the body.  With this portrait of a character whose face remain hidden, the artist allows us to participate through the free interpretation of the image. The artist deals with the historical, the social and the political through images of everyday scene, such as Floor of dreams. This work, made in La Mina, is part of an extensive project by the artist focused on this neighbourhood inhabited mainly by the gypsy community in Barcelona.

 

In the work of Pablo del Pozo, interest in the territory is a recurring theme. In Tierra rojiza, the artist uses the pig as a symbol of his region of origin, to create a materiality that refers to the stereotyped vision of Extremadura as an arid and dry landscape.

 

Mercedes Pimiento’s work is characterized by making visible all the material culture that nourishes our society but which we try to hide, turning into sculptures the structures that are hidden in architecture, such as pipes, cables and canals, using organic or artificial materials.

 

Fernando Prats is interested in the territory of Chile and South America and its representation through historical or reinterpreted maps. In Territorio silenciado #2, he proposes a critical view of a continent condemned to be endlessly exploited. In Affatus, on the other hand, the canvas becomes the territory of creation where, subverting the traditional gesture of the painter, the worms have left their own mark. We also present an unreleased video, Zonificación, accompanied by a work on paper, composed from the projection of the recorded action, and which establishes a dialogue with the spiral staircase of the Macba, in a centrifugal movement that is access, exit, ascend and descend, the body and the architecture in connection and amplification with the Richard Meier building.

 

 

Cabrita (Lisbon, 1956) lives and works in Lisbon. His work has received international recognition and has been crucial to the understanding of sculpture since the mid-eighties. In recent years he has had solo exhibitions at CAC Malaga, Mudam Luxembourg, CGAC Santiago de Compostela, Museo Serralves Porto, Palazzo Molina de Cartagena, Mexico, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Galeria Arte Moderna e Contemporânea, Lisbon, MAXXI Rome, The Arts Club of Chicago and Hôtel des Arts, Toulon, France. He has participated in important international exhibitions, such as Documenta IX in Kassel (1992), the 21st and 24th São Paulo Biennial (1994 and 1998), the Venice Biennial (in 1997, in 2003 representing Portugal and in 2013) and the 10th Lyon Biennial (2009). He is currently showing the sculptural installation Les Trois Grâces, at Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, and an installation entitled Field at the 59th Venice Biennale.

Camila Cañeque (Barcelona, 1984) explores in different ways the theme of resistance to progress through performance, sound, objects, installations and writing. She has exhibited in several art centres in Barcelona such as La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Blue Project Foundation, Fabra i Coats, Caixaforum, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, in Madrid and at the Queens Museum of Art, New York. She was a finalist for the Miquel Casablancas Prize and participated in residencies at Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona, Nida Art Colony, Lithuania, ZKU, Berlin, Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro, among others.

Hannah Collins (London, 1956). Currently lives between London and Almeria. Between 1989 and 2010, she lived in Barcelona, exhibiting at Galeria Joan Prats since 1992. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, was nominated for the 1993 Turner Prize, and received the 2015 SPECTRUM International Photography Prize, including exhibitions at Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Camden Art Centre in London and Baltic Centre in Newcastle. Among other museums and art centres, she has exhibited at SFMOMA, San Francisco; Centre Pompidou Paris; FRAC Bretagne; Fotomuseum Winterthur; Museo UNAL, Bogotá; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna; MUDAM Luxembourg; Tate Modern, London; Seoul Museum of Art; VOX image contemporaine, Montreal; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Fundación La Caixa, Madrid and Barcelona; La Laboral, Gijón; Artium, Vitoria; CAC, Málaga.

Pablo del Pozo (Badajoz, 1994) lives and works in Barcelona. Graduated in Fine Arts at the Universitat de Barcelona, he was selected in the Biennial of Valls and has won the Guasch-Coranty Award, participating in the exhibition at the Centre Tecla Sala, in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat. He also participated in the Biennial Jeune Création Européenne with exhibitions in museums in various European cities. He has received the creation award of the Sala d’Art Jove de la Generalitat de Catalunya, exhibiting there in 2018. He was nominated for the Miquel Casablancas Prize, and in 2019 he exhibited individually at the Arranz Bravo Foundation in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

Mercedes Pimiento (Seville, 1990) lives and works in Barcelona, where she is pursuing a doctorate in Fine Arts. With a degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Sevilla and a Master’s Degree in Artistic Production and Research from the Universitat de Barcelona, she has been selected for programs and grants such as INJUVE, the Madrid Community Training Program – Open Studio, the Kiosko Project of the José Guerrero Centre, the Guasch Coranty Foundation Grant for artistic creation, the Sant Andreu Contemporani residency program, or the Iniciarte Program. She has exhibited in museums and art centres such as Centre Tecla Sala in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, CAAC Seville, Fabra i Coats in Barcelona, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Fundación Naturgy in A Coruña, Centro José Guerrero in Granada, among others.

Fernando Prats (Santiago de Chile, 1967) has lived and worked in Barcelona since 1990. His work is known for the actions undertaken mostly in Chile, among them Gran Sur, Isla Elefante, Antarctica, Acción Lota, Géiser del Tatio, Salar de Atacama, Mina a Rajo Abierto o Congelación, Collins Glacier and Chilean Antarctica. He has participated in exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale; Mediations Biennale, Poznan; Biennial of the Canary Islands, Chile Triennial, Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile. He has significant works in the public space of Chile and a work commissioned by Barcelona. He is currently presenting the solo exhibition Aun tendría que haber luciérnagas, at Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria, Museo Nacional de Bogotá.

Aún tendría que haber luciérnagas 

FERNANDO PRATS

Fragmentos Espacio de Arte y Memoria

Museo Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá

22.04 – 14.07.2022

 

 

El artista chileno Fernando Prats presenta la exposición Aun tendría que haber luciérnagas, bajo la curaduría de Varinia Brodsky, en Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria perteneciente al Museo Nacional de Bogotá.

 

El proyecto reflexiona sobre el abandono de las instituciones en la búsqueda de la justicia en Colombia y la resistencia de la comunidad de Buenaventura haciendo frente a la barbarie. A partir de una investigación situada en Buenaventura.

 

La obra de Prats dialoga con el contramonumento Fragmentos realizado en 2017 por la artista colombiana Doris Salcedo, y propone una ruta que presenta el reconocimiento de la tragedia de la desaparición forzada desde la vinculación con la comunidad de víctimas y sus testimonios.

 

 

Catálogo exposición

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ARCOmadrid 2022

Galeria Joan Prats

Stand 9C06 y stand 7B19, nº1 (ARCO 40+1)

 

 

 

Para nuestro stand en la feria de ARCOmadrid 2022 presentamos una selección de piezas de nuestros artistas, con un protagonismo de la pintura -Luis Gordillo, Lola Lasurt, Alfons Borrell y Juan Uslé- y otras situadas en el límite del lenguaje pictórico -José María Sicilia, Fernando Prats-, o que reflexionan sobre el género, como Perejaume. Dialogando con estas obras, ocupará un lugar especial una pieza de Muntadas con una visión más conceptual en torno a la pintura.

 

También presentamos por primera vez obras de Alicia Framis, iniciando nuestra colaboración con la artista.

 

La Galeria Joan Prats ha sido seleccionada para el programa especial 40+1, sección comisariada por María Inés Rodríguez, Francesco Stocchi y Sergio Rubira que celebra el 40 aniversario de la feria. Presentaremos en esta sección obras emblemáticas de tres artistas que han sido muy importantes para la historia de nuestra galería, como son Hernández Pijuan, Ràfols Casamada y Perejaume.

 

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ARCO E-xhibitions 2

ARCO E-xhibitions 2. FERNANDO PRATS. Todesfuge

 

 

Para la segunda e-xhibitions, recordamos la exposición de Fernando Prats titulada Todesfuge de 2014, donde presentábamos obras en diversos formatos (vídeo, instalación, fotografía, papeles). Su punto de partida era el conocido poema de Paul Celan del mismo título. Con motivo de la celebración del 100 aniversario del nacimiento del poeta rememoramos esta exposición que fue también una de las últimas realizadas en el emblemático espacio de la Galeria Joan Prats en Rambla de Catalunya, espacio diseñado por Josep Lluís Sert, al que queremos rendir homenaje igualmente con esta presentación.

 

Paul Celan escribió el poema Todesfuge (Fuga de la Muerte) en 1945, poco después del retorno de un campo de trabajos forzados. Publicado unos años más tarde, tuvo una gran repercusión en Alemania, donde se consideró como “un lamento moral del Arte contra la Historia”. En la instalación, el poeta entona este himno fúnebre como si se tratara verdaderamente de una fuga musical.

 

Para Paul Celan, la tarea del arte consistía en no dejar de dialogar nunca con las fuentes oscuras. Es este mismo espíritu dialéctico, entre lenguaje y oscuridad, el que intenta prevalecer y dar sentido al trabajo de Fernando Prats presentado en esta exposición. Sus obras, cargadas de un trasfondo histórico, nacen de una energía puesta al límite, representada por el humo como materialidad inequívoca. Son obras que ponen en relación conceptos contrapuestos, como aniquilación y armonía, subrayando, de este modo, un contrasentido que expresa un desconsuelo extremo.

 

Fernando Prats construye este relato a partir de los cielos de Auschwitz, lo acontecido en la Noche de los cristales rotos, la lluvia, el humo y la leche, como símbolo del alimento materno que aparece en la imagen de la “negra leche del alba” (Schwarze Milch der Frühe), con la que empieza el poema, y que sitúa la paradoja en la matriz de la creación.

 

 

 

Descubre nuestro stand en 2D y en 3D 

Fernando Prats

Introductory video to the exhibition

3D Virtual Tour

 

We are pleased to present the seventh exhibition of Fernando Prats at Galeria Joan Prats, titled Primera Línea (Front line), which shows his most recent work, carried out in the context of the protests that took place in Chile during the months of October and November 2019.

 

Fernando Prats work is determined by the relationship with the energy of nature and the territory, rooted in the ties that he establishes fundamentally with his origin country, Chile. The Andes mountain range, the Atacama desert, the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica, as well as memory, are inescapable and constitutive links of his work, turning the Chilean landscape into his poetic and pictorial language from a contemporary practice. Based on the constant observation of the context, nature, the human being and his intervention in critical situations, the work of Fernando Prats is understood from the concept of “pictorial geolicity”, that is to say, painting as a mobilizing agent, an active surface that works through layers that open up to new displacements. It is perceived in this way as a process that transforms the language of the work itself from a perspective far from the rational, seeking a space of creation free of judgment that considers chance as a revealing force. The use of smoke as a primary element in his work, a materiality of ancestral use, allows, through an original technical process, to capture the traces and pulsations that become in the painting.

 

On October 18, 2019, Chile was shocked by a true social earthquake that would begin to declare itself as “the awakening of Chile”, becoming the most eloquent call, after the dictatorship, for a profound change in the country’s neoliberal and cultural economic model. In this context, and as Fernando Prats’ method of work has always been, the artist introduced himself in the center of the demonstrations in Santiago, living in first person an experience that allowed him to record the movement and confrontation of the Front Line. The materiality, the social landscape, the superposition of the bodies in resistance, the visual languages and the word build a cartography of resonances, signs and drives of a country’s memory.

 

“To this alludes “Chile woke up”, the slogan that, starting on October 18th 2019, began to run through the streets and squares of the country like a trail, unexpectedly upholstered by a crowd that emerged from the most diverse corners to dust off a forgotten language – the language of dignity – and staging the creative moment of a destitute power. (…)

 

This is what the work of the artist Fernando Prats seems to exhibit, that work has consisted since its inception in capturing that particular moment in which certain materials in rebellion (physical, geographical, domestic) knot each other releasing the mnemic energy of the country. We perceive it in a palpable way in this new show, Primera Línea, a kind of small visual atlas in motion in which fragments of texts, images, slogans, emblems and bodies shape the hectic days of a community that shows the artistic moment that precedes both the script of the story, and that which is characteristic of aesthetic work.

 

The visual daily example that Prats traces -pictoric itself and articulated by means of records and video- gives the impression of fulfilling two crucial objectives in this way: undressing on one hand the raw visuality that during Chile’s revolt forges intervened monuments, the fire of the barricades, the cobblestones torn from the sidewalks, the rewritten flag and the fighting bodies as part of a performance practice that is anticipated when making the artist’s singular, and showing on the other hand that the extreme energy that his own work liberates is not part of the muse that visits the creator in silence, but the underground power of some images of the confines of a creative multitude. This shows Prats as a determined friend of those who fight for their rights, and not of those who defend their privileges.”

 

Fragments of the text “AHORA. Acerca de Primera Línea, de Fernando Prats” by Federico Galende (Rosario, Argentina, 1965)

 

 

Fernando Prats (Santiago de Chile, 1967) lives and works in Barcelona. His work is known for the actions or expeditions undertaken mostly in Chile, including among others Gran Sur, Elephant Island, Antarctica (2011), Acción Lota, acción Géiser del Tatio, acción Salar de Atacama, acción Mina a Rajo Abierto (2006) or Congelación, on the Collins glacier, Chilean Antarctica (2002).

 

He has received distinctions as the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Grant (2007); artist-in-residence at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter Köln, Cologne (2003); ‘Presidente de la República del Gobierno de Chile’ Honor Grant (1997-2000); ‘Pilar Juncosa y Sotheby’s’ special award (1994) or ‘Ciutat de Palma Antoni Gelabert d’Arts Visuals’ award (2010).

 

He has participated in international exhibitions as the Venice Biennale, representing Chile (2011); Mediations Biennale, Poznan (2012); Canarias Biennial, Chile Triennial (2009), ‘Exposición Universal del Agua’, Zaragoza (2008), Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2011); or Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile (2004), among others.

 

He has significant public space works as Pou de Llum, Manresa, Spain (2008); Acción Medular, in hommage to General Carlos Prats González (2017) installed as a permanent work at Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos de Chile (2007) or Su vertical nos retiene, monumental work built at Parque Cerrillos, Santiago de Chile, thanks to a public competition held by the Chilean Ministry of Public Works for the COP25 (Summit on climate change), which was to be held in Santiago de Chile in December 2019. Currently the Barcelona’s Town Hall has commissioned the artist to carry out a monumental project in Plaza Pablo Neruda in hommage to the task of the republican exiles welcome undertaken by the poet.

 

Fernando Prats has just been the winner of the third edition of the call to carry out artistic interventions in ‘Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria, Museo Nacional de Colombia’, with the project ‘Aún tendría que haber luciérnagas’.

 

 

* To provide you with more information and images, please contact galeria@galeriajoanprats.com

 

 

think about the size

JORDI ALCARAZ, PAULINE BASTARD, ERICK BELTRÁN, ALFONS BORRELL, CABELLO/CARCELLER, CABRITA, VICTORIA CIVERA, HANNAH COLLINS, CARLES CONGOST, LUIS GORDILLO, ANNIKA KAHRS, LOLA LASURT, FABIAN MARCACCIO, ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA, MUNTADAS, JAVIER PEÑAFIEL, PEREJAUME, PABLO DEL POZO, FERNANDO PRATS, CAIO REISEWITZ, MARCEL RUBIO JULIANA, JULIÃO SARMENTO, JOSÉ MARÍA SICILIA, TERESA SOLAR, JUAN USLÉ 

 

 

“Escric amb rius i turons / sobre el paper de les planes”    Perejaume*

 

Spring has been marked by a radical transformation of our ways of moving, relating and exchanging. Suddenly everything has changed. Our perception of everyday things and also of the most relevant things has been questioned. What seemed essential to us becomes not essential. We have realized the precariousness of life, we have known the importance of solidarity, of family, of our loved ones, of our environment. Nature and the environment have also taken a leading role that they did not have before.

 

Facing this, we have dared to ask the artists of the gallery to participate in this exhibition that we now present, with works which they have carried out during this time of social isolation. They are diverse answers to the same question, they have in common the use of paper as a medium, common for some –like Victoria Civera or Perejaume– and unprecedented for others –like Hannah Collins or Annika Kahrs–.

 

The making of these works has been able to become an escape route, a tool to continue working despite the difficulties and, at the same time, they allow the spectator to enter the intimacy of the studios and the heads of their creators. They are, in most cases, works made at home, with house’s tools, testimonies of a unique and, we hope, unrepeatable moment.

 

‘Think about the size of the universe, then brush your teeth and go to bed’ takes the title of a work by the artist Annika Kahrs. Starting with humor, it invites us to reflect on the balance between micro and macro levels and on the search for meaning and identity within the unfathomable universe of which we are a part, reflections that become fundamental in the current context.

 

The result of this exhibition has been a series of diverse works. In some cases, we see that the themes that worried the artists, before the pandemic, have maintained their leading role or, even in others, they show fragments of their work process and are linked to future projects.

 

In other cases, we find proposals that speak directly of the current moment: reflections on personal relationships, the political situation, messages from the media or vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly.

 

Finally, we would also find a third group of works that focus on observing the closest environment and nature.

 

 

To provide you with more information and images, please contact galeria@galeriajoanprats.com

 

 

* “I write with rivers and hills / on the paper of the plains” Perejaume

Fernando Prats, ganador de la tercera edición de la convocatoria para realizar intervenciones artísticas en ‘Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria, Museo Nacional de Colombia’ en la categoría de artistas con larga trayectoria, con el proyecto ‘Aún tendría que haber luciérnagas’.

 

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Fondation EDF, Paris

16.09.2020 – 31.01.2021

 

Du 16.09.20 au 31.01.21, la Fondation groupe EDF présente Courants verts, Créer pour l’environnement. Pour la première fois en France, une exposition d’envergure qui réunit des artistes internationaux engagés dans le combat écologique.

 

Tous les artistes sont résolument engagés à travers leurs installations, photographies, vidéos ou dessins à affronter les défis que pose l’Anthropocène : ce moment où les activités humaines perturbent en profondeur les processus naturels, impose à l’humanité de nouveaux comportements, un rapport à l’environnement, une culture et des mentalités à refondre.

 

Sans pessimisme, Courants verts, Créer pour l’environnement souligne avec les œuvres présentées le processus d’adaptation que traverse aujourd’hui l’humanité. L’exposition rappelle que l’art joue son rôle dans cette mutation essentielle caractéristique de l’actuelle transition climatique en agissant sur les imaginaires et en proposant de nouveaux récits.

 

Avertir, Agir et Rêver sont les trois axes qui composent le parcours de l’exposition sous le regard de son commissaire, Paul Ardenne, historien de l’art et auteur de l’ouvrage Un Art écologique. Création plasticienne et anthropocène (Le Bord de l’Eau, 2018 ; sec. Édition augmentée, 2019). Déployée sur les 400 m² de l’Espace Fondation EDF, l’exposition est accompagnée d’un large volet pédagogique invitant les visiteurs à poursuivre la réflexion engagée à travers des masterclasses, des conférences et des ateliers.

 

Artistes:  ACKROYD & HARVEY (Royaume-Uni), Maria Thereza ALVES (Brésil),  Joseph BEUYS (Allemagne), Janet BIGGS (États-Unis d’Amérique), Thierry BOUTONNIER (France), Michel DE BROIN (Canada), Nicole DEXTRAS (Canada), COUTURIER LAFARGUE (Canada), Christiane GEOFFROY (France), Jérémy GOBÉ (France), Nathan GRIMES (États-Unis d’Amérique), Olga KISSELEVA (Russie), Janet LAURENCE (Australie), Barbara et Michael LEISGEN (Allemagne), Lucy et Jorge ORTA (Royaume-Uni / Argentine), Fernando PRATS (Chili), Jean-François ROBIC (France), Jacques ROUGERIE (France), Khvay SAMNANG (Cambodge), Sarah TROUCHE (France), Sam VAN AKEN (États-Unis d’Amérique)

 

Commissariat: Paul ARDENNE

 

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Gran Sur, 2011

Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid

25.02 – 26.07.2020

 

La Sala Alcalá 31 presenta la exposición “Gran Sur: arte contemporáneo chileno en la Colección Engel”, una importante selección de una de las mayores colecciones privadas de Latinoamérica, la colección de Claudio Engel.

 

Comisariada por Christian Viveros-Fauné, “Gran Sur”, presenta por primera vez en España una muestra tan importante de obras de artistas chilenos de finales del siglo XX y principios del XXI. La exposición no solo representa la más exhaustiva introducción al arte chileno que se ha producido en las últimas décadas, sino que también articula una visión distinta de la extraordinaria creatividad exhibida por varias generaciones de artistas chilenos tanto dentro como fuera del país.

 

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ARCO Madrid

 

26/02/2020 – 01/03/2020

 

Booth 9C09

 

LUIS GORDILLO . CHEMA MADOZ . MUNTADAS . FERNANDO PRATS . JULIAO SARMENTO . JOSÉ MARÍA SICILIA . PEREJAUME . ALICIA KOPF . TERESA SOLAR . JUAN USLÉ . PABLO DEL POZO . VICTORIA CIVERA . HERNÁNDEZ PIJUAN

 

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Casa Museo La Sebastiana, Fundación Pablo Neruda, Valparaíso, Chile.

07/09 – 31/12/19

 

Fernando Prats (Santiago de Chile, 1967) protagoniza esta exposición conmemorativa de los 80 años del Winnipeg con su obra llamada Oscilación de un exilio, que será inaugurada el sábado 7 de septiembre a las 12:00 en La Casa Museo La Sebastiana, Ricardo de Ferrari 692, Valparaíso (Chile).

 

 

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Dijous 19.09.19, a les 19h, al Centre Cultural Terrassa.

 

Closing de les exposicions de la Col·lecció Josep Maria Civit.

 

Civit ens convida a entendre diferents formes de pensar i de dialogar amb el present. El compromís cultural, l’experimentació amb la imatge i la pràctica d’una aventura mental són els trets distintius de la col·lecció. Tot això en l’intent de compartir una mirada més enllà de la retiniana.

 

Obres de Jordi Alcaraz, Joan Brossa, Hannah Collins, Muntadas, Pablo del Pozo, Fernando Prats, Teresa Solar, entre d’altres.

 

 

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Fernando Prats UPF Pompeu Fabra Ciutadella

Inauguració dimarts 4 de juny, 20h.

Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Sala de graus Albert Calsamiglia (campus Ciutadella de la UPF)

 

A les Lliçons Haas 2019, dedicades al tema: “Ombres i miralls”, la UPF presenta l’obra titulada: He aquí las espaldas del que me ve, 2000 – 2019, de l’artista xilè Fernando Prats. L’obra i el pensament d’Antoni Tàpies han estat un referent molt significatiu en la trajectòria de Prats i amb aquesta instal·lació, es vol establir un intens diàleg entre els dos artistes.

 

Obra visible fins al 17/06/2019, amb cita prèvia.

 

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Fernando Prats

Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona – Fabra i Coats

12.04 – 30.06.2019

 

10 anys – Creadors EN RESIDÈNCIA als instituts de Barcelona

 

EXPOSICIÓ
12.04 – 30.06.19

Des del 2009, Creadors EN RESiDÈNCiA als instituts de Barcelona proposa un espai de treball compartit entre artistes, alumnes i docents de centres públics d’educació secundària. Al llarg de tot un curs, i dins l’horari lectiu, creadors i creadores de disciplines i generacions molt diverses desenvolupen un projecte artístic juntament amb un grup de joves, des de la ideació fins a la presentació. Comparteixen la creació.

La creació és cerca, recerca, experimentació, assaig, tempteig; obertura a perspectives inusitades; possibilitat d’interrogar-se sobre el que creiem evident; constant diàleg; moviment que impulsa a aprendre, proposar, assajar, arriscar, comprometre’s.

 

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ARCO Madrid. 21/02/2018 – 25/02/2018

 

CABELLO/CARCELLER
HERNÁNDEZ PIJUAN
LOLA LASURT
PEREJAUME
JAVIER PEÑAFIEL
FERNANDO PRATS
CAIO REISEWITZ
JULIÃO SARMENTO
JOSÉ MARÍA SICILIA
TERESA SOLAR ABBOUD

 

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Godafoss (God's waterfall), 2016

Alicia Kopf | Cabello/Carceller

Lola Lasurt | Perejaume

Teresa Solar Abboud | Fernando Prats

 

Exhibition: 6-22 September, Tue-Fri 11-14h & 16-20h

 

On the occasion of the sixth edition of Artnou, Galeria Joan Prats presents Confluències, an exhibition that brings together works by the artists Alicia Kopf, Lola Lasurt and Teresa Solar Abboud, who establish a dialogue with works of other artists of the gallery, chosen by them: Cabello/Carceller, Perejaume and Fernando Prats. Thus emerge dynamics based on the exchange of views between artists of different generations, which lead to connections and new readings, sometimes direct, sometimes unexpected.

 

 

Alicia Kopf presents the photographic series Waterfall Chasers (2015), which symbolically alludes to the thaw as a moment of uncontrolled emotions, from representations of waterfalls. The idea of water fluidity links these works to a series of drawings by Cabello / Carceller, titled Autorretrato como fuente (Self-portrait as source) and Fuente (Source) (2005).

 

The work by Lola Lasurt Preparation for Wit Boven Zwar (2016), composed of oils on canvas and costumes, proposes a reconstitution of the Carnival of Aalst of 1946 from a 16mm film of that time. With a similar approach, Perejaume, in the series of drawings Ball de muntanyes (2007), associates the folkloric dances to the mountains, using, as is common in its practice, references to the Catalan culture that refer to universal preoccupations.

 

Teresa Solar Abboud, with Doble Mordido (Double Bite, 2013), investigates the tools and photographic processes that intervened in the experiments of Harold Edgerton, questioning concepts such as protection, concealment or overexposure. In the same way, Fernando Prats, in Sismograma Chuquicamata (2008), uses para-photographic techniques, such as smoked paper, in order to fix moments or traces of an action in a landscape.

MMDH Chile

MMDH – Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Santiago de Chile

27.07 – 24.09.2017

 

La exposición está compuesta por más de 1600 folios que constituyen el original del libro de memorias escrito en Buenos Aires por el General Carlos Prats. Cada hoja fue ahumada por el artista Fernando Prats; además, la correspondiente al  11 de septiembre de 1973 se ha transformado en escritura luminosa. La exposición también incluye una serie de dibujos que dialogan con los manuscritos. 

Durante el mes de septiembre de 2017, la frase del 11 de septiembre de 1973 será trasladada a la explanada frontal del Museo. En ese lugar, se instalará de manera permanente, como parte del memorial al General Prats.

 

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Curated by Ramón Castillo

 

 

The exhibition Habitar el vacío, curated by Ramón Castillo, gathers for the first time four Chileans artists,

Alfredo Jaar, Iván Navarro, Fernando Prats and Raúl Zurita, at Galeria Joan Prats in Barcelona.

 

The four artists, from different conceptual approaches, sensibilities and aesthetic ideologies, perform works of complaint or criticism to human tragedies occurred in different parts of the world, with a language that forces the limit of the visual and textual, through various editorial, material and technologic devices. This extreme dimension of their researches becomes the metaphor of the title Habitar el vacío: art as a way to overcome isolation or lack of empathy among people.

 

Their works converge in the generation of an alert state of the viewer-reader versus territorial, economic, political and social issues affecting people in different places of the planet where hope becomes a revolutionary act. We are introducing the visual and textual research of the four artists who challenge the senselessness and the contemporary experience report.

 

Raúl Zurita (Santiago de Chile, 1950) lives and works in Santiago de Chile. His work is marked by the Military Dictatorship, during which he was detained and tortured. Poetry, performance and urban interventions are part of a repertoire of actions that he developed critically, creatively and interdisciplinarily. Raúl Zurita alternates his literary work, poetry recitals and teaching work at Diego Portales University and Harvard. He has won major awards such as the National Prize for Literature in Chile, Pablo Neruda Award, the Italian Pericle d’Oro Award, the Guggenheim and DAAD scholarships, among others.

 

Fernando Prats (Santiago de Chile, 1967) lives and works in Barcelona since 1990. He has participated in international exhibitions such as Venice Biennale, representing Chile (2011); Mediations Biennale, Poznan, Poland (2012); Canary Islands Biennial (2009); Chile Triennial (2009) and Exposición Universal del Agua, Zaragoza (2008). He has exhibited his work in international art centers such as Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, Fundació Miró, Barcelona or Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile.

 

Alfredo Jaar (Santiago de Chile, 1956) lives and works in New York since 1982. This artist, architect and filmmaker has exhibited in art centers of all around the world and has participated in biennials such as Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009, and representing Chile, 2013), São Paulo Biennial (1987, 1989, 2010) and Kassel Documenta (1987 y 2002). Among his solo shows there are the ones in New Museum of New York, Whitechapel gallery of London, MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Moderna Museet of Stockholm, and Museum of Contemporary Art de Chicago. He is National Prize for Art in Chile.

 

Iván Navarro (Santiago de Chile, 1972) lives and works in New York since 1997. He has participated in international exhibitions such as Venice Biennale, representing Chile (2009), Prospect2 of New Orleans (2011), la Havana Biennial (2012) and The Disappeared/Los Desaparecidos, exhibition organized by North Dakota Museum of Art that travelled through North and South America from 2005 to 2009. His solo exhibitions include those in Matucana 100, Santiago de Chile (2015 and 2007), Museum of Contemporary Art, Aukland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia (2015), and Frost Art Museum in Miami (2012).

 

 

The artists will be present during the opening.

A catalogue has been published for the exhibition.

Fernando Prats

Santiago de Chile, 1967

Lives and works in Barcelona

 

 

In his work Fernando Prats “paints” or, we’d rather say, recreates nature; he deals with registering tracks, making the invisible visible, giving voice and image to what was present but kept unnoticed.

 

Using seismographs, traces, photographs, videos… he registers the beat of different realities on smoked supports, from the flight of birds to the wild jet of a geyser, the deep coal of mines or the powerful waves that break against the cliff. Thus, Fernando Prats holds an unorthodox relationship with painting, both for the choice of his instruments and for the intervention of chance.

 

His work is formalized in actions which himself registers, that show the creative processes intrinsic to his work. Fernando Prats paintings are time-objects, as they condense in their finished form a story, the one of its creation, whose times often have nothing to do with the ones of the artist, but with the natural rhythms.