exhibition

‘Fundació Mapfre’ opened its doors this Thursday with ‘The triumph of colour’, a major exhibition which includes masterpieces from Van Gogh, Cézanne and Matisse, amongst others. The venue is located in the modernist Casa Garriga-Nogués in Barcelona and its decoration “reminds the visitor that he is in Barcelona” stated Fundació Mapfre’s Culture Area Director, Pablo Jiménez Burillo. The gallery expects to host a major exhibition at the beginning of each season and to start with they chose this collection of 72 paintings, from the impressionist masters to the avant-garde painting, lent by Paris’ Musée d’Orsay and the Orangerie.

Mari Chordà, Eulàlia Grau and Joan Rabascall pieces can be seen these days in London’s Tate Modern exhibition ‘The World Goes Pop’. Their works are being presented together with sculptures, paintings and videos of the most well-known Pop Art artists internationally. In total, more than 160 artworks from the 60s and 70s showing the history of this artistic movement and exploring the different cultures that contributed to it are on display. Topics range from politics and the human body to public protests, consumerism and domestic revolutions. The exhibition tries to break the myths about Pop Art, traditionally linked to the United States and the work of Andy Warhol, and presents artworks made in Latin America and European countries such as Croatia and Austria.

For the first time in 11 years, the internationally-renowned Basque artist Eduardo Chillida has an exclusive exhibit on display in Barcelona. Since 20 April, the Mayoral Gallery has hosted the Chillida exhibition, 'Awakening' ('Despertar'). The exhibition is comprised of a carefully curated selection of sculptures, drawings and prints, as well as supplementary material for his monumental works photographs and the video 'Art and Dreams' ('El arte y los sueños'). Among the works are two emblematic sculptures, 'La estela' and one of the pieces from the series 'Trembling Iron' ('Hierros de temblor'). Barcelona displays 3 large-scale sculptures of Chillida in the Gothic Quarter and in parks. In 2004, the Jordi Barnadas art gallery hosted the last individual exhibition devoted to the artist held in the Catalan capital.

The 10^th edition of Barcelona Design Week started Monday with a programme of more than 70 activities, under the slogan 'Design is here!' ('el Disseny és aquí'). The event is a call for companies, designers and other agents of the business, innovation and creativity fields, and it is also open to the wider public, with event locations scattered throughout Barcelona. Barcelona Design Week also marks the beginning of the 5^th Barcelona Design Festival, which is being held from 8 June to 5 July. Among the new features is the 'Design is Future Congresstival,' midway between the conference and the festival, which delves into the world of innovation through design.

Enric Miralles was an internationally renowned Catalan architect who died prematurely at the age of 45. His studio EMBT Architects, founded in 1993 with his wife Benedetta Tagliabue, created many globally recognised projects, such as the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh and Igualada’s Cemetery. On Monday, the Fundació Enric Miralles launched the exhibition 'Urban regeneration 1992-2022. Enric Miralles-EMBT projects for urban spaces', curated by Karl Unglaub. The show – held in the foundation's palace in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter – provides a glimpse into the Catalan architect's universe, with a focus on his original models, sketches, notes and photographs, most of which are on display to the public for the first time. The foundation also announced that it has scheduled a second exhibition on Miralles' furniture design at the 15^th century Casavells Palace, in the Province of Girona, and is planning a third one at MACBA (Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum) for 2016.

The Catalan film director Albert Serra, best known for his film 'Story of my Death' (winner of the Locarno International Film Festival, 2013) will present his latest project 'Singularity' commissioned for the fourth Catalan participation at the major, contemporary art exhibition Venice Biennale. The exhibition represents Catalonia in this 56^th edition of the international exhibit, within the 'Collateral Events' section. The official opening of the event was held on Thursday and is part of an ongoing collaboration between the cinematographer and the curator of the project, Chus Martinez. Catalonia's participation at the Biennale is driven and coordinated by the Institut Ramon Llull (the public body promoting Catalan culture and language abroad), and this year has cost a total of 497, 000 euros.

From Wednesday 29^th of April onwards, the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) will exhibit 'Gabriel Casas: Photography, journalism and modernity, 1929-1939', the first great monographic exhibition dedicated to one of the most important photographers of the interwar period. Standing out as the photographer who introduced 'New Vision' photography in Spain, Casas achieved "great maturity" in the decade represented in this exposition with 120 photographs and 4 thematic areas: 'Records', 'New Vision', 'Photography' and 'Portraits', as explained by the curator Juan Naranjo. The exhibition dedicated to Gabriel Casas is a cooperative production between the MNAC together with the National Archive of Catalonia and La Caixa's foundation for social and cultural work. The show will later travel to the CaixaForum art galleries in Girona (North-East Catalonia) and Tarragona (South Catalonia).

Barcelona's Picasso Museum unveiled on Friday the first exhibition in the world analysing how Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí artistically admired and influenced each other, despite their political differences. The Catalan museum has opened the most awaited temporary exhibition of the season, which will run until 28 June. 'Picasso/Dalí. Dalí/Picasso' showcases 78 works of these two giants of 20^th century art, including paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures and carvings. They tell the story of their artistic relationship and how their works evolved by setting many parallels between the two. The exhibition also includes 33 documents such as some letters that Gala and Salvador Dalí sent to Picasso, which had only been on show once, in Paris.

This week, the Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA) launched a new exhibition 'Barcelona in late antiquity: Christianity, Visigoths and the city'. 120 new pieces dating back from between the 4^th and 7^th centuries are going to be on display in the museum's Monumental Site of Plaça del Rei, in the heart of the Gothic Quarter. The launch has also been an opportunity to present the re-designed archaeological tour of this specific underground site, with its area which is open to the public growing in size. "The new archaeological discoveries contribute to explain the main transformations that took place in Barcelona, from Roman Barcino to Christianity", the curator Julia Beltran de Heredia said to CNA.

The "La Caixa" Foundation has opened Moche Art from Ancient Peru. Gold, Myths and Rituals, an exhibition to be hosted at CaixaForum in Barcelona until the 7th of June. The exhibition includes 200 pieces of pre-Incan Peruvian art from the collection of the Lima-based Larco Museum. According to its curator Ulla Holmquist, the exhibition is conceived "as a route to understanding the Andean worldview through art". The launch of the event coincides with the recent opening of Barcelona's Museum of World Cultures, which hosts a permanent exhibition of more than 500 pieces from the artistic heritage and traditions of Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. The Museum of World Cultures occupies two Gothic palaces located in the Born neighbourhood, just next to the Picasso Museum.

To mark the 150 years since the birth of Catalan sculptor Josep Llimona, the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), in Barcelona, is hosting an exhibition of over 60 pieces of his work. The curator, Natàlia Esquinas emphasised that Llimona was the most important Catalan sculptor around 1900 and 2014 marks 150 years since his birth, and 80 since his death, making it the perfect time to host such an exhibition. Speaking to the CNA, Esquinas said that the exhibition was "to rediscover him and see all his work, beyond ‘Desconsol’ (‘Desolation’ in Catalan) his great masterpiece." It will be the most important retrospective of Llimona’s work, featuring some unpublished pieces. The exhibition opens on Wednesday and will run until 1 March 2015. 

'On the Table. Ai Weiwei' opened this November at the Virreina Image Centre in Barcelona and will run until 1 February 2015. The exhibition shows the trajectory of the artist’s life through forty pieces, including photographs, videos and installations, some of which were created specially for the gallery in Barcelona. Through various routes, visitors can address the fundamental issues of the work of the controversial Chinese artist and political activist, including multidisciplinary themes, and those of non-conformity, dissent and the condition of media. The exhibition will take place in the Virreina Image Centre, an art centre on the famous Les Rambles walkway, and entry will be free of charge.

The 18^th Edition of the Barcelona Meeting Point will take place between 29 October and 2 November in Fira de Barcelona's Montjuic venue. The trade fair is a real estate exhibition that brings together buyers and sellers to network and learn about the latest industry trends. This year there will be 265 participating companies from 23 countries. According to the show’s President, Enric Lacalle, it will be the first edition to open in a recovering housing sector, after 6 years of crisis and setbacks. The real estate market is strengthening; there was a 36.6% increase in the acquisition of houses by foreigners in 2013 and a 12.5% rise in housing sales throughout Spain. In addition, real estate investment in Barcelona is expected to exceed €1.6 billion in 2014, 30% more than last year. In fact, 21 international investment funds will participate in the trade fair. The show will also include a series of talks and presentations, and offer financing options for property purchase.

This year, Barcelona will be the focus of the Beijing Design Week (BJDW), to be held between the 26^th of September and the 3^rd of October in the Chinese Capital. The international exhibition will dedicate 8 spaces to Barcelona, the biggest being 79 Tank, a 3,500 square metre pavilion housed in an old gas tank. The BJDW will devote a total of 5 exhibitions, 17 conferences and more than 20 activities to the design made in Barcelona. In addition, alternative design will also be present during this week-long event that brings together the capitals of China and Catalonia: 3 small projects will to take place in District Dashilar, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Beijing. The BJDW event that last year attracted 5 million people, previous invites have included London (2011), Milan (2012) and Amsterdam (2013), making Barcelona the 4^th largest city to be chosen.

The Joan Miró Foundation, a museum of modern art devoted to the famous Catalan artist, hosts the exhibition 'De Miró a Barcelona' ('From Miró to Barcelona'). The display focuses on 4 art works that Miró wanted to donate to the city of Barcelona: the Airport Mural, the Mosaic at the Pla de l’Os in Les Rambles, a sculpture for the Parc de Cervantes (which ended up in Chicago), and the Joan Miró Foundation. It is a collection of sketches, drawings, photographs and videos made in preparation for these works. Curated by the Director of the Foundation, Rosa Maria Malet, the exhibition is taking place from the 9^th of May to the 2^nd of November 2014. In accordance with Joan Miró’s will, the exhibition is free of charge.