Mariaelena Roqué: "They have treated me like a prostitute for being a free woman who defends her own language"

BarcelonaThe artist Mariaelena Roqué (Tarragona, 1952) speaks loud and clear: "I am not a prostitute nor have I ever been one, but, nevertheless, I have been treated like a prostitute and denied as a prostitute for being a free woman who defends her own language", states Roqué at the Rocío Santa Cruz gallery in Barcelona. Roqué is known for being the co-founder of the Carles Santos Company, and now, coinciding with the 12th edition of the Gallery Weekend, she is exhibiting for the first time in a gallery. She speaks about prostitution in front of photographs of a performance where she can be seen naked running through a forest at night, a reminder of the prostitutes that "hunters take to their wild parties". She raises her voice for these women and for those who sit on the side of a road waiting for clients.

Roqué says that the basis of her work is the "self-portrait", but in the body of work she exhibits –full of phalluses, crosses, leather, chains and flowers– she represents "any woman in different situations throughout her life". From mourning to rage. From sex to contemplation. The theatre of death of Tadeusz Kantor and the comedy and sex of Aristophanes. "For me, the stage has always been a place of living creation, and I have done work for the stage that, at the same time, has the purpose of remaining as a contemporary art piece that speaks of the times we are living in and those we have lived through", says Roqué. Among the featured pieces is the installation at the entrance, a procession inspired by Lysistrata that culminates in La Bicha, "a pagan virgin and non-virgin icon that has turned all the dark, solid and masculine stuff of sadomasochism around". "And also of religion. It has become a protector of all these women I portray", she adds

The 12th edition of the Barcelona Gallery Weekend includes 38 exhibitions in 25 modern and contemporary art galleries in Barcelona and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, with more than 50 national and international artists. Another of the participating galleries, Seltz by Ritter Ferrer, hosts the first exhibition by Francesc Torres (Barcelona, 1948) in Barcelona after 18 years, titled The future is not what it used to be. Torres also did a performance: in a video he can be seen running through the streets of New York. The work that draws the most attention is a sort of self-portrait made with his own car, full of personal objects, among which are paintings by his father, who was an amateur painter; a portrait of his mother with Tono, the chimpanzee she had, which she let starve to death when she had to sell it; playing cards; a pair of cowboy boots; a string of skulls painted gold, and a Lincoln Brigade helmet. Torres asked his mechanic to bring the car inside the gallery, because between the bodywork and the door frame there wasn't even room for "a cigarette paper," says Torres. "The self-portrait is the pretext to talk about two things: one, that contact with art does not necessarily have to come from excellence, that is, from going to the Prado to see Rubens or Goya, but rather, as was my case, it can come from the father, who was a Sunday painter. He had wanted to be an artist, he came from a very poor family and could not afford his studies, so he painted when he could. He had skill, he ended up being a graphic design advertising illustrator, but he always painted," explains Torres. The other thing he wants to talk about with this work is "the possible biological origin of art." "In the world of culture, this idea still makes your hair stand on end," he warns.

Francesc Torres has dual Spanish and American nationality, so it is inevitable to talk about the ravages of Donald Trump, which make him even consider leaving the United States. "I left Spain at 19 because I was fed up, the only thing I could do was get involved in politics, and I thought I would end up in prison or dead. Now, however, I have the feeling that if I return to the United States they will kick me out, and that pisses me off, because I have an important history there and that that bastard has made it so difficult, because the situation makes your hair stand on end, it's abominable," says Torres.

The channeled drawings of Eulàlia Valldosera

Another artist who immerses herself in her work is Eulàlia Valldosera, who is exhibiting an anthology of mediumistic drawings made since 2016 at the Àngels Barcelona gallery. "Drawing is the substrate of all my work, from the moment I take the first step, only it remained in the background," she says. "The flow I receive comes to me in voice and images, the writings go in parallel. I extract it by channeling it. They told me: 'Draw, because what we cannot make you understand, or know through understanding, we will transmit to you by drawing.' So, I have not drawn to obtain a result, but to be drawing; by being inside the flow, I receive and integrate information into myself," explains Valldosera. This work broke all her schemes. "I had to surrender to the first voice that told me: 'Draw a flower.' Draw a flower? From where can I express? Can't I express something interesting from happiness? I couldn't sleep until I drew the flower. After the flower came the butterfly, and here I began to be shown all the foundations of the energetic bodies of living beings," explains the artist.

On the other hand, the ADN gallery presents a small anthology of the twenty years of collaboration with one of its most iconic artists, Eugenio Merino, known for works such as the sculpture of Franco inside a soft drink fridge. "The collaboration has served to greatly reinforce my political discourse," says the artist. In the same vein, the Víctor Lope gallery reviews the production of Kepa Garraza on the visual construction of power. The Gallery Weekend is organized by the Art Barcelona association, and among other exhibitions there is also a collective one about The Great Gatsby at the Sala Parès.