The Catalan artist Eugenia Balcells, one of the most prominent exponents of video art internationally, presents an exhibition this Tuesday in the Lluís Millet room of the Palau de la Música. In The Light of the Elements, Balcells invites the public to enter a dance of light through the visual interpretation of the components of Mendeleev's periodic table, translated into lights and colors. The exhibition is made up of two samples in one, depending on when you visit it.
During the day, the natural light that penetrates through the modernist stained glass windows of the room will illuminate the mural titled Homage to the Elements. This work, in addition to recognizing the symbolic nature of the periodic table, incorporates the luminous signature of each element along with its chemical description. Each element is accompanied by a unique color palette, which represents Balcells' visual interpretation of the emission spectrum that each one produces when interacting with light or heat.
As night falls, the exhibition takes on an immersive dimension to reveal Frequencies. It is then when the sun goes down and the colored lights come off the walls to flood the room through video projection. This artistic expression suggests that light is, in some way, the sound inherent to matter. The exhibition will be available to visit until March 31, with access through concert tickets or guided tours.
In parallel to the exhibition, on Thursday, January 18, the Sounds for images, images for sounds concert will take place. There Juan de la Rubia, principal organist of the Sagrada Familia, will star in a unique and unrepeatable session in which he will improvise on visual scores that the artist Eugenia Balcells created in the 1980s in New York, in a series titled Sound Works.
During the concert, works such as Clear music (1981), an 11-page sheet music book where transparent plastic objects move freely along the lines of the staff, or Flight ( 1981), a poetic video/musical score that consists of the observation of a flight of doves through lines that make up a staff. Furthermore, in homage to Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Balcells will present Mirror of mirrors-flowers. A new creation inspired by the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The concert will conclude with an improvisation on Frequencies. After the screening on the Palau stage, the public will be able to continue immersed in Balcells' art in the exhibition displayed in the Lluís Millet room.
