"What we are forgetting is happening to a whole generation of European artists from the second half of the 20th century, Tàpies. The only exceptions are those who have a State behind them. Tàpies does not, but he does have a city and a country", says Ferran Rodés, the president of the Fundació Tàpies, at the presentation of the Tàpies Year, a commemoration that should serve to "reconnect him with the closest public opinion". The commemoration will start on December 13, coinciding with the hundred years since the artist's birth, and the party will continue throughout 2024, with numerous activities, including a great retrospective curated by Manuel Borja-Villel and a film by Albert Serra.
Tàpies was much more than a painter or an artist who constantly experimented with different aesthetic languages. He was also a writer and a visionary thinker (a "little philosopher who meditates on existence", as he defined himself), who anticipated some of the central themes of today, such as "environmentalism" or "anti-colonialism". , underlines Rodés, for which reason the event wants to celebrate not only the artist and his work but also "to vindicate the validity of some ideas that are more necessary today than ever."
Hence the motto of the centenary, Tàpies lives. Vive Tàpies, to which 150 institutions are invited to participate and whose programming, under the coordination of Judith Barnés, will be articulated around five themes: the creative process of the artist, science in tandem with art and as a way of understanding the world, oriental philosophy and Japanese culture, the artist's commitment, and the new perspectives that young artists can offer above all.
The preparations for the Tàpies Year (which has a logo from the Todojunto studio and for the moment an advance is known) are being carried out without the Fundació having resolved the replacement three years after Carles Guerra resigned. Finally, a contest was launched on September 1, but seven years later and despite having received at least twenty important resumes, according to Rodés, the selection process will last at least until the summer.
In any case, the starting signal will take place on December 13 with the inauguration of the Tàpies exhibitions. The Japanese footprint, focused on the influence in his work of some Japanese monks from the 18th and 19th centuries who transmitted the teachings of Zen Buddhism, and A=A,B=B, which, with Tàpies as a backdrop, will reflect on the connections between art and science through the participation of artists and creators selected by Pep Vidal (Daniel Bejar, Jorge Carrión, Lúa Coderch, Ian Waelder...)
Already in the spring of 2024, Sengai will publicize the work of the Japanese Buddhist monk whom Tàpies admired and quoted in some of his works and writings. The last exhibition, and the highlight of the exhibition, will be the Antoni Tàpies retrospective. The practice of art, curated by the former director of the Fundació and the Reina Sofía Museum, Manuel Borja-Villel, who will trace his entire career, once again "linking works that have been scattered for a long time" and will emphasize the most unknown , according to the conservative Núria Homs.
This last exhibition will first stop at the Bozar-Center for Fine Arts in Brussels (from September 14 to January 7), later it will go through the Museo e Reina Sofía in Madrid (from February 20 to June 24), and As of July 2024, it can be seen in Barcelona in a "version designed exclusively for the Fundació", Homs explained.
The center will display a series of educational activities, will co-organize exhibitions with other institutions, such as the one hosted by the Museu d'Història de Catalunya on the political commitment of artists, and while the celebration lasts its façade will be illuminated every night thanks to an intervention by the studio by Antoni Arola. The person in charge of lowering the curtain will be the filmmaker Albert Serra, with the premiere of a film about mysticism and materialism.
