calendario eventi  :: 

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23/3/2005

Two exhibitions

Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona

Eugeni Forcano. Photographs 1960-1996
March 24 to may 22

Eugeni Forcano (Canet de Mar, Barcelona, 1926) is an unconventional photographer whose work defies classification. Restless, free, self-taught, passionate, imaginative, combative, for Forcano, photography is an unusual personal and artistic adventure, a process in constant evolution. His starting point was black and white.

From a mere amateur, he shot to fame in 1960 when Josep Vergés and Nèstor Luján invited him to work for the magazine Destino, commissioning him to produce the cover photos. This was a period Forcano remembers as being intense, frenetic and enthralling. He rushed out into the street like a hurricane to discover a moving world beyond his wildest dreams. The world is like a wood, but he was lucky enough to see each tree, each individual person with his profound, sympathetic gaze.

In a period of time spanning little more than a decade, Forcano produced a body of work that was both intense and extensive, much of it still unknown to the general public. His photographs reflect a way of life, a way of surviving, in difficult times. His gallery of characters is impressive. These are street people, authentic, living, brought so close to us that they appear to breathe, to speak. Life caught in mid-flight, with all its greatness and all its misery, its drama and its irony.

The popularity he achieved through his work for Destino led him to another crossroads in the form of a call from the world of advertising. They believed in him, appreciated him. This was a challenge he seized on with tenacity and creative capacity, his most formidable weapons. His reporter's instinct and his daring enabled him to establish his own style in his illustration and fashion work. Colour guided his mind towards the future, giving him another way of looking at things, sparking off his imagination. Forcano began to play with images and ideas, creating a surreal, symbolic world. It was as if he were bringing dispersed elements together, harmonising them and linking them up to each other to give them sense, something between dream and reality, rebellion and utopia.

But colour took him even further. The spark came from a professional commission. They wanted something new and surprising. Taking a different approach, he finally obtained an image that afforded him a glimpse of the mystery, and he then decided to unravel it completely. Forcano devoted years to investigating the possibilities æthat he believed to be infiniteæ of colour photography, provoking chance through light.

Over the course of his career, Forcano published several books. The first two were Barcelona and Festa Major whilst two more, Josep Pla vist per Eugeni Forcano and Banyoles en dia de mercat, 1966, though containing material produced in the 1960s, were published later. In short, all the leading critics agree that Forcano's achievements place him amongst the finest photographers Catalonia has produced, hailing him as both a classical and an avant-garde artist.
Rosario Martínez Rochina Curator

Free entrance

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Antonio Miró. Over the years
March 24 to june 5

With "Antonio Miró over the years", the Institut de Cultura del Ajuntament de Barcelona ends the "Moderns Contemporanis" cycle that started in 1997. For many, Antonio Miró is only a fashion designer, and there is no question that this is a central part of his life. The exhibition, however, aims at contemplating his contribution to the fashion world alongside his work in other creative fields, such as interior design, music, silverware, perfume, and so on, and other disciplines such as show business. Fashion, therefore, is no more than a thread linking all the different aspects of his personality in this strikingly intimate exhibition which reveals both Antonio Miró the designer and the person. Visitors become submerged in periods of time which have left their mark on the artist, and the exhibition includes a detailed reproduction of his workshop. The 17 rooms of the exhibition show us the most representative items and shows of Antonio Miro’s career as a fashion designer.

One part of the exhibition recovers historic periods which have left their mark on the artist, largely the revolutionary sixties. It also reveals the period of reflection lived by Miró in the 70’s, leading him to experiment with new structures and colours. From then on, the exhibition is not organised chronologically, but the items have been arranged to illustrate his work as a fashion designer, with some of the woman’s fashion surprising us with its colour and hyper-feminine shapes.

Music, his sources of inspiration and Miro’s numerous contributions to show business also find their place in this retrospective exhibition which attempts to show his enormous creative versatility.

Finally, the catalogue itself is an essential document. Miró wanted it to reflect, although not defend, his world, being at the same time a book about fashion, design, thought and art.
Susana Frouchtmann

Image: Eugeni Forcano, Desesperada esperanza, Catedral, Cristo de Lepanto, Barcelona, 1963

Palau de la Virreina
La Rambla 99 Barcelona
Time table
tuesday-friday: 11-14h & 16-20.30h saturday: 11- 20.30 h
sunday & festive: 11-15h. monday closed
Cost: 3 euros

stampa

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