Joan Miró?s printmaking workshops. Editions and Projects of Contemporary Art
Dates happen: 07/10/2009 ... 05/01/2010
7 November 2009 – 5 January 2010
State Museum of Contemporary Art, Warehouse Β1, Thessaloniki’s Port
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 9:00 – 21:00
Opening: 14 November, 2009, 13.30
Guided tours for the public / Educational programs
Information: Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki, Τ: +30 2310 593270
The State Museum of Contemporary Art presents 47 engravings of Juan Miró from the series Els gossos (The dogs), Fundació Palma (Palma Foundation) and Les gens de la mer (People of the sea) of the period 1974 – 1981.
At the same time works of visual artists honored with the Pilar Juncosa & Sotheby’s fellowship are exhibited, who worked in the Majorca’s workshops, where Miró himself spent the last creative period of his life.
They are Wolf Vostell, Guillem Nadal, Peter Phillips, Pep Llambias, Mercedes Laguens, Marina Núñez, Blanca Navas, Wayne Crothers, Txuma Sánchez, Fernando Bellver, Alwar Balasubramaniam, Dionísio González, Montse Carreño, Viola Tycz, Rafa Forteza, Jaume Plensa, Joan Fontcuberta, Jonathan Houlding i Sean Borodale, Mònica Fuster, Amparo Sard, Nuria Solsona, Nieves Galiot, Joan Cruspinera, Hui-Chu Ying, Alexis Leyva “Kcho”, Ben Jacober and Marios Eleftheriades, who is also this exhibition’s curator.
The Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation in Majorca was established when Juan Miró and his family donated in 1980 to the city of Palma the four artistic workshops, where the artist had worked intensively from 1956 until his death, in 1983.
The purpose of the donation was to transform those workshops into a stimulant for the future generations of artists.
Since the Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation offered the first Pilar Juncosa & Sotheby’s fellowships for the study and the perfection of the artistic activity of the graphic works and the printing processes, an heterogeneous amalgam of visual artists was harbored in the workshops, who were seeking Miró’s modern spirit.
The Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation offered many artists the possibility to create engravings, lithographs, silk screens, ceramics, photography works in the workshops, while it recently turned towards the new technologies, including ideas requiring digital printing systems.
The exhibition in the Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki of the SMCA completes the artist’s portrait during the mature period of his activity, as it is thoroughly presented in the exhibition of the Teloglion Arts Foundation of A.U.Th. and is continued in the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art. It is an exhibition which actively proves the valuable and live contribution of the significant Catalan artist to contemporary art.
In the framework of the Thessaloniki international Film Festival [13 to 23 November 2009] the documentary “The Phosphorescent Trails of Snails” will be projected at the same time in the outer area of warehouse B1. This documentary suggests a flashback to the creative “moment” when Miró added color to his dreams. We will be guided by the words written by Yvon Taillandier “Joan Miro: je travaille comme un jardinier (I work like a gardener)” published in the revue XXeme Siecle, Paris, no. 1, issue 1, 15 February 1959.
[Runtime: 54’ Director: Cesc Mulet / The Phosphorescent Trails of Snails © La Perifèrica produccions / Televisió de Mallorca. 2009]
This exhibition is held in the framework of the 50th Thessaloniki Film Festival, with the collaboration of the Teloglion Arts Foundation of A.U.Th. and the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca and the support by the 5 Museums’ Movement (Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Museum of Byzantine Culture, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Teloglion Arts Foundation of A.U.Th.)