Claudi Casanovas (Barcelona, 1956) makes experimental and subjective sculptures using ceramic techniques, a discipline that is usually associated with the traditional craftsmanship. The Artur Ramon gallery exhibits until April 21 Materia y origen a suggestive selection of his sculptures made since 2013, and presents them in dialogue with works by other artists and other eras: medieval and noucentista art, Chillida, Tàpies, Henry Moore. ..
It also coincides with the exhibition that Casanovas is presenting at the Museu de La Garrotxa in Olot, until May 1, where he presents his latest series, Màter, which evokes Paleolithic and later female divinities. Casanovas's work usually has a material character, with a volcanic appearance. Her sculptures look like petrified energy, and in fact they really are: clay plus fire plus air and cold. Ceramic, free of applications and services, is transformed into experimental sculpture, between the ideal and chance.
Riera i Aragó. The Marlborough Barcelona gallery and Riera i Aragó (1954) celebrate the fifty years of activity of this Barcelona artist with a retrospective exhibition, El bell viatge (until March 25). The show brings together works that his author has saved over the years because they had a special meaning for him. The sculptural group Submarinos de las Islas Baleares (1977) stands out, made up of seven unique bronze pieces. Each of them represents a different island, with different tones and textures. Majorca is the richest and most varied, Menorca and Isla del Aire evoke the wind, erosion and lichens and seem the wildest, Sa Dragonera has a mysterious appearance, with dark shades, and the brightest are the pieces that represent Formentera , Ibiza and Cabrera.
There are seven wall sculptures, island-ships with the prow pointing downwards, which can evoke not only an archipelago, but also a group of totemic characters. And the airplane diptych from 1990 is also notable. Riera i Aragó's flying devices seem like evolutions of those exhibited by the Belgian artist Panamarenko already in the 1970s, but the Barcelonan has managed to develop his work with personal accents and plastic richness in his several variations on a few themes: ships to fly that become signs, ships to submerge and delve (or their vestiges). Propellers, zeppelins and submarines refer to travel, without losing the textures and materiality of immediate life.
Xcentric and Bruce Conner. The new generations are interested in experimental cinema. Full rooms and sold out tickets in some Xcèntric sessions. Young, female, international, intergenerational audience. This season we have been able to see marvels such as Notes from Light Music by Lis Rhodes or Computer Music Studies by Blanca Rego and Miquel R. Nieto, among others. And next Thursday, March 16, Spacecut (1971), by Werner Nekes, and Declarative Mode, by Paul Sharits, will be screened. Filming by volcanologist Haroun Tazieff on Mount Etna and the smoky mountain Erta Ale will close the season in May. And the growing Xcèntric Archive, with more than a thousand films, can be visited permanently, from Tuesday to Sunday. A privilege that many Barcelonans have not yet discovered.
For those who are unfamiliar with experimental cinema, I recommend that you visit the exhibition dedicated to Bruce Conner at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, which has been extended until April 23rd. And that they pay attention, especially, to the visionary cinema of Looking for mushrooms –fast and expanded versions–, to the hypnotic and atomic Crossroads (1976), to the first masterpiece of audiovisual collage (A movie, 1958) and to the video clip Mongoloid , for Dev group. A warning: certain projections are automatically interrupted and you have to reactivate them by leaving and entering the room again.
